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Greatest thoughis aboul God gleaned fro 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/greatestthoughtsOOlaws 


GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 
J. GILCHRIST LAWSON 


GREATEST THOUGHTS 
ABOUT GOD 


GLEANED FROM MANY SOURCES BY 
J. GILCHRIST LAWSON 


Special Correspondent Leading Religious Papers 
AUTHOR OF “GREATEST THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE,” “‘GREATEST 
THOUGHTS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST,’ “DEEPER EXPERIENCES 
OF FAMOUS CHRISTIANS,’ “PROOFS OF THE LIFE — 
HEREAFTER, AND OF “THE MARKINGS IN 
THE CHRISTIAN WORKERS TESTA- 


MENT, “‘ 


THE PRECIOUS PROM- 
ISE BIBLE,’ ETC. 


GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


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COPYRIGHT, 1920, 


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PREFACE 


For the greater part of his life the compiler of this volume 
has been collecting the greatest thoughts of the greatest 
thinkers on the greatest themes. Having found appreciative 
publishers and appreciative readers for his books “Greatest 
Thoughts About the Bible” and “Greatest Thoughts About 
Jesus Christ,” he decided to compile this volume on the 
greatest of all themes, “Greatest Thoughts About God.” 

During the years the compiler has engaged in evange- 
listic work in the United States and Great Britain, he was 
able to consult the best books in the best libraries of Amer- 
ica and Britain and to glean the best thoughts from them. 
While engaged in journalistic work, for five years, for the 
leading religious papers, in London, England, he was 
brought in contact with most of the religious leaders of the 
world and garnered the best thoughts from them. Through 
his connection with the religious publishing business during 
the last ten years, he has been able to collect the best 
thoughts from all the leading religious papers. 

Owing to the exceptional privileges which have been given 
to him by the providence of God, the compiler of this volume 
is able to give to the world the very cream of religious 
thoughts concerning GOD. With a grateful heart to the 
kind providences which have enabled him to do so, he now 
dedicates this volume to the glory of God and for the public 
good. 

James Gitcurist LAwson. 


CONTENTS 


DEFINITIONS OF Gop 


NaTURE A REVELATION OF Gop 


EXISTENCE OF GoD. . 
Erernity oF Gop. 
SuPREMACY OF GoD 
SOVEREIGNTY OF GoD. . 
PERSONALITY OF GoD. © 
Trinity oF Gop 

Gop THE CREATOR 
ArrriBUTES OF GoD 


Gop INFINITE AND Tha eee ee 


Gop UNcCHANGEABLE, OR IMMUTABLE . 


OMNIPOTENCE OF GoD | 
OmniscIeNceE oF Gop. “. 
OMNIPRESENCE OF GoD 


ste 


UntversaLity oF Beier In Gop 
Lrrerary Men’s Beier 1n Gop 


Ports’ BELIEF IN Gop 


STATESMEN’s BELIEF IN GOD 


Famous Lawyers’ BELIEF IN Gop 
Purtosopuers’ BELIEF IN Gop . 


ScIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN Gop . 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS CONCERNING ‘Gan 


CHARACTER OF GoD . . 


Lovevor GoD oo ei 
Ho.tiness oF GoD. . . 
Justice or Gop .. . 
(FRAcEe OF GOD. ess 


Mercy: or Gop . .. 


vil 


vill CONTENTS 


Goopness oF Gop. oe 
LONGSUFFERING OF Gop. ... . 
GSRIEF OF GODi) OS 2 eee ee ee 
(SUIDANCE OF Gop) oe apn Nos 


GLory AND RicHEs or Gop. .. . 
PROVIDENCE OF GOD). oes 


WITLI OR ASOD sorcerer ee ee ae de 
PGE OFC GOD ee he ae a 
FATrTHruLness of Gop 9). ego 


WRUTHEULNESS OF (GHOD 200) oe 
EATHERHOOD OF GOD) .e 2000 ON 
tVisterLiry Or Gop. eye eae 
SRINGDOM VOR GOD 6 fii Ko bead Wa none 
Names, TirLes anp SymBots or Gop 
kIOD SoHATRED “FOR ISIN» 00 oh) e ou 


Tue INDWELLING oF Gop .°:. . . 
Our DEPENDENCE ON Gop... . 
BENEFITS OF TRustING Gop... 
SEEKING APTER (GOD te eu et nas 


How Gop 1s REVEALED TO Us. . . 
DOVE FOR COD Gainers Mie solr at, Mia 
PEBWINGICIOD Pri Ml eis cn ale nae 
PEAR ORR GDO UCR Hae Ne, MV ae 
NEGLECTING AND Opposinc Gop . . 
BLASPHEMING THE NAME oF Gop . . 
FatsE Beviers Concerninc Gop . . 
Proverss Apour Gop -.:. ... 
ENDER Gu erp en ee Oe oe ne an ee 


GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


\ 


GREATEST THOUGHTS 
| ABOUT GOD 


DEFINITIONS OF GOD 


BIBLE DEFINITIONS OF GOD 


God is a Spirit—John 4:24. 
God is love—1 John 4:8. 


GOD CANNOT BE DEFINED 


As the human mind is finite, and conceives by defining 
the limits of its thought, and as God is known to us to be 
infinite, it is evident that the human mind can never be. 
capable of conceiving God adequately as He is, or of de- 
fining His being—Hodge. | 


“Gop” THE GREATEST WORD 


In form, the word “God” is small indeed, but in meaning 
it is infinite. It expresses the greatest thought that ever 
entered the heart of man. It is lisped by the children, read 
‘and known of all men; but also inscribed at the zenith of 
the universe, and shedding its glory on all below it—H. W. 
Everest. 


NO MEANS OF DEFINING GOD 


What is God? The telescope by which we hold converse 
with the stars, the microscope which unveils the secrets of 
nature, the crucible of the chemist, the knife of the anato- 


9 


10 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


mist, the reflective faculties of the philosopher, all the com- 
mon instruments of science, avail not here. On the thresh- 
old of that impenetrable mystery, a voice arrests our steps. 
From out the clouds and darkness that are round about 
God’s throne, the question comes, “Canst thou by searching 
find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfec- 
tion?”’—Thomas Guthrie. 


GLADDEN’S DEFINITION OF GOD 


The Unknown Cause of the universe is Himself a Spirit, 
whose Word is perfect truth, whose nature is perfect right- 
eousness, whose law is perfect love-—Washington Gladden. 


GOD THE UNIVERSAL SOUL 


Hail, Source of all being! Universal Soul 

Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail! 

To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts 

Continual climb—who with a Master hand 

Hast the great whole into perfection touched. 
—Samuel Thompson. 


GOD EASILY KNOWN BUT NOT DEFINED 


We know God easily, if we do not constrain ourselves to 
define Him.—Joubert. 


CHRIST’S DESCRIPTION OF GOD 


Christ’s thought of God was that of a being clothed with 
matchless simplicity and beauty. He affirmed that God is 
_man’s Father, who made His earthly child in His own 
image; that man is a miniature of the Divine Being; that 
what reason and judgment and memory and love are in the 
small in man, they are in the large in the great God. . . 
Christ revealed God as the world’s great burden- bearer full 
of an exquisite kindness and sympathy; that what He was 


DEFINITION OF GOD 11 


through thirty-three years, God is through all the ages; 
that what He was to publican and sinner in Bethlehem, God 
is for all maimed and wrecked hearts in all worlds; that no 
human tear falls but that God feels it; that no human blow 
smites the suffering heart but that God shrinks and suffers; 
that with wistful longing He follows the publican and the 
prodigal, waiting for the hour when He may recover the 
youth to his integrity, or lead the man grown gray in sin 
back to his Father’s house.—N. D. Hillis. 


eed 


THE WESTMINISTER DEFINITION + — 


There was a story once told to me by an American Pres- 
_ byterian minister in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster 
Abbey, that the Westminster divines, when they were draw- 
ing up The Confession of Faith and came to the question of 
making a definition of the Supreme Being, found the diff- 
culty so overwhelming that they proposed to have a special 
prayer for light. The youngest minister was to undertake 
the office. It was, according to English tradition, Calamy ; 
according to Scotch, Gillespie. He rose, and began by an 
impassioned and elaborate invocation of the Almighty, 
which he had hardly uttered» when the whole assembly broke 
out into the exclamation: “This shall be our definition!” 
The definition may be read in the third article of the West- 
minster Confession—Dean Stanley. 


God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His 
being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. 


_ —Westminster Catechism. 


CRUDEN’S DESCRIPTION OF GOD ~~ 


God.—This is one of the names which we give to that 
eternal, infinite, and incomprehensible being, the creator of 
all things, Who preserves and governs everything by His 
Almighty power and wisdom, and Who is the only object 
of our worship.—Cruden. 


12 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


. PLATO’S IDEA OF GOD 


There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, 
in Plato’s description of God—*“That truth is ‘His bade and 
light His shadow.’—Addison. 


GOD A CIRCLE WITHOUT CIRCUMFERENCE 


God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and its cir- 
cumference nowhere.—Empedocles. 


GOD INCOMPREHENSIBLE 


Invisible, Immortal One! 
Behind essential brightness unbeheld, 
Incomprehensible! what weight shall weigh— 
What measure measure Thee? what know we more 
Of Thee, what need to know, than Thou hast taught, 
And bid’st us still repeat at morn and even— 
God, Everlasting Father, Holy One— 
Our God, our Father, our eternal all— 
Source whence we come, and whither we return; 
Who made the heaven, who made the flowery land? 
Thy works all praise Thee: all Thy angels praise: 
Thy saints adore, and on Thy altars burn 
The fragrant incense of perpetual love.—Pollok. 


MELANCTHON’S DEFINITION OF GOD 


God is a being spiritual, intelligent, eternal, true, good, 
pure, just, merciful, free altogether, of immense power and 
wisdom.—Melancthon. 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 


WALLACE’S FAVORITE QUOTATION 


God of the granite and the rose! 
Soul of the sparrow and the bee! © 
The mighty tide of being flows 
Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee. 
It leaps to life in grass and flowers, 
Through every grade of being runs; 
While from creation’s radiant towers 
Its glory flames in stars and suns. 


HOW NATURE REVEALS GOD 


The book of Nature is an expression of the thoughts of 
— God. We have God’s terrible thoughts in the thunder and 
lightning; God’s loving thoughts in the sunshine and the 
breeze; God’s bounteous, prudent, careful thoughts in the 
waving harvest. We have God’s brilliant thoughts beheld 
from mountain top and valley, and God’s sweet and pleasant 
thoughts of beauty in the little flowers.—Spurgeon. 


GOD SHINES THROUGH NATURE 


Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent 
God bursts through everywhere.—Emerson. 

As a countenance is made beautiful by the soul’s shining 
through it, so the world is beautiful ae the shining through 
it of God. Jacobi. 


GOD EVERYWHERE REVEALED 


In all the vast and the minute, we see the unambiguous 
_ footsteps of the God, Who gives its luster to the insect’s 


13 


14 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


wing, and wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.— 
Cowper. 


CREATION A TEMPLE OF GOD 


In Psalm XXIX.—that psalm of nature, where creation is 
seen as a temple—all nature is God’s grand cathedral: The 
‘waters are the great organ with its deep diapason, and the 
thunders peal forth like the colossal pipes of the pedals; 
cyclones and whirlwinds are the choir with majestic voices ; 
the lightnings are the electric lamps; giant oaks and cedars 
are the bowing worshipers; and the psalmist says, “In His 
temple doth everything shout Glory!"—A. T. Pierson. 


EVERYTHING .REVEALS GOD 


The whole world is a phylactery, and everything we see 
is an item of the wisdom, power, or goodness of God.—Sir 
Thomas Browne. 


COWPER SAW GOD IN EVERYTHING 


In the vast and the minute we see 

The unambiguous footsteps of the God 

Who gives its luster to an insect’s wing, 

And wheels His throne upon the whirling worlds. 
—Cowper. 


NATURE REVEALS GOD’S RICHES 


God is so rich that He can put more of what is beautiful 
upon a single lily or tulip than the great King Solomon 
could put on all his clothing. The hoarse, homely peacock 
carries more that is beautiful upon his tail than the richest 
king could ever show. And even the poor butterfly, which 
is to live but a few hours, has a more glorious dress than 
the proudest, richest man that ever lived. God can dress 
this poor worm up so, because He is rich. If, then, He can 
take such care of the lilies, the birds, and insects, and make 
them more beautiful than man can ever be, will He not take 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 15 


care of us, if we obey Him? Suppose you had a rich father, 
so rich that he had a hogshead full of gold, and a great 
barn full of silver: do you think that, if you were to be a 
good child, he would ever refuse to take care of you? But 
God has more gold and silver laid up in the ground,’ which 
men have not yet dug up, than would make a mountain; it 
may be, thousands of mountains. Can He not take care 
of you? Suppose your father had more oxen and horses and 
cattle than you could count over in a day, or in a week: 
would he not be able to take care of his child, and give him 
everything he needs? Yes. But God has “cattle upon ten 
thousand hills”; and “every beast of the forest” is His, and 
His are “all the fowls of the air.” Can He not give you 
food from all these cattle, and clothe you, and give you beds 
from the feathers of all these fowls? Yes: He is able to do 
it all. Suppose your father was so rich that he had ten 
thousand men to work for him every day, all at work, and 
all paid to their mind, and all happy in working for him: 
would you have any fears that he could not take care of 
you and do you good? But God has more servants than 
these: He has all the good people on earth in His em- 
ployment, and all the angels in heaven. He pays them all. 
And, if you need anything, He can send one, or a million, of 
these His servants to you, to help you.u—Dr. J. Todd. 


NATURE IN HARMONY WITH GOD 


Inasmuch as God made the universe, and made it to har- 
monize with His own nature and will, it is difficult to see 
how a soul that is not en rapport with Him can escape being 
out of joint with the universe. Each point of difference 
with the Divine Will which pervades the universe must be 
a point of friction and heat.—W. R. Taylor. 


NATURE IS GOD’S HARMONY. 


When I behold all the requisites in organs, where music 
is in perfection, I stay not on the iron, lead, wood, the 
pipes, nor on the bellows: my spirit flieth to that hidden 


16 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


_ spirit, which distributeth itself with so melodious propor- 
tionable divisions throughout the whole instrument. So, 
when I contemplate the world, I stick not on the body of 
the sun, the stars, the elements, the stones, the metals, 
the plants, nor the living creatures: I penetrate into that 
secret Spirit, which insinuateth itself thereunto with such 
admirable power, such ravishing sweetness, and incompara- 
ble harmony.—N, Caussin. 


NATURE GOD’S DWELLING 


We are coming to think of God as dwelling in nature as 
the spirit dwells in the body. Not that God and nature 
are identical; He transcends nature as I transcend my body 
and am more than my body.——Lyman Abbott. 


NATURE REVEALS GOD'S GREATNESS 


If philosophy is to be believed, our world is but an outly- 
ing corner of creation; bearing, perhaps, as small a propor- 
tion to the great universe as a single grain bears to all the 
sands of the seashore, or one small quivering leaf to the 
foliage of a boundless forest. Yet even within this earth’s 
narrow limits, how vast the work of Providence! how soor 
is the mind lost in contemplating it! How great that Being 
whose hand paints every flower, and shapes every leaf; who 
forms every bud on every tree, and every infant in the 
darkness of the womb; who feeds each crawling worm with 
a parent’s care, and watches like a mother over the insect 
that sleeps away the night in the bosom of a flower; who 
throws open the golden gates of day, and draws around 
a sleeping world the dusky curtains of the night; who meas- 
ures out the drops of every shower, the whirling snowflakes, 
and the sands of man’s eventful life; who determines alike 
the fall of a sparrow and the fate of a kingdom, and so 
overrules the tide of human fortunes, that whatever befall 
him, come joy or sorrow, the believer says, “It is the Lord: 
let Him do what seemeth Him good” !—Dr. Guthrie. 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 17 


NATURE A SPARKLET FROM GOD 


Father, we thank Thee for the daily sun, sending his rose- 
ate flush of light across the wintry world. We thank Thee 
for the moon which scarfs with loveliness the retreating 
shoulders of the night. We thank Thee for. . . the stars 
wherewith Thou hast spangled the raiment of darkness, 
giving beauty to the world when the sun withdraws his 
light. All this magnificence is but a little sparklet that has 
fallen from Thy presence, Thou Central Fire and Radiant 
Light of all! These are but reflections of Thy wisdom, Thy 
power, and Thy glory !—Theodore Parker. 


CARLYLE’S PICTURE OF GOD'S CATHEDRAL 


Neither say that thou hast now no symbol of the God- 
like. Is not God’s universe a symbol of the Godlike? Is not 
immensity a temple? Is not man’s history and men’s history 
a perpetual evangel? Listen, and for organ-music thou wilt 
ever, as of old, hear the morning stars sing together —Sartor 
-Resartus, p. 175. 


GOD'S GREATNESS SHOWN IN NATURE 


And you, ye storms howl out His greatness? Let your 
thunders roll‘like drums in the march of God’s armies! Let 
your lightnings write His name in fire on the midnight dark- 
ness; let the illimitable void of space become one mouth for 
song; and let the unnavigated ether, through its shoreless 
depths, bear through the infinite remote the name of Him 
whose goodness endureth forever !—Spurgeon. 


GOD'S BENEVOLENCE SHOWN IN NATURE 


The benevolence of our Great Creator is chanted even by 
things unpleasant to the ear. “The nuptial song of reptiles,” 
says Kirby, “is not, like that of birds, the delight of every 
heart; but it is rather calculated to disturb and horrify than 
to still the soul. The hiss of serpents, the croakings of 
frogs and toads, the moanings of turtles, the bellowing of 


18 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


crocodiles and alligators, form their gamut of discords. 
Here, also, we may read beneficent design. Birds are the 
companions of man in the lawn and forest, in his solitary 
walks, amidst his rural labors, and around the home of his 
domestic enjoyments. They are, therefore, framed beauti- 
ful to the eye and pleasing to the ear; but of the reptile 
tribes, some are his formidable enemies, and none were ever 
intended to be his associates. They shun cultivation, and 
inhabit unfrequented marshes or gloomy wilds. Their harsh 
notes and ungainly or disgusting forms serve, therefore, to 
warn him of danger, or to turn his steps to places more fit 
for his habitation—H. Duncan. 


GOD’S VOICE IN NATURE 


Every effect is the result of some free will; but many 
effects within and without us are not produced by a created 
will; therefore they are produced by an uncreated. .. . On 
the deep sea, under a venerable oak, in the pure air of the 
mountain-top, the Christian communes with the Father of 
spirits. . . . All ethical axioms are the revelations of Him- 
self to his children. Their innocent joys are His words of 
good cheer; their deserved sorrows are His loud rebukes.— 
Prof. Edwards A. Park, in Old South Church, Boston. 


GOD’S PROVIDENCE SHOWN IN NATURE 


Every part of nature seems to pay its tribute to man, 
in the great variety of tribes, as well the prodigious number 
of individuals of each various tribe, of all creatures. There 
are so many beasts, so many birds, so many insects, so 
many reptiles, so many trees, so many plants upon the 
land; so many fishes, sea-plants, and other creatures in 
the waters; so many minerals, metals, and fossils in the 
subterraneous regions,—that there is nothing wanting to the 
use of man, or any other creature of this lower world. The 
munificence of the Creator is such that there is enough 
to supply the wants and conveniences of all creatures in all 
places, all ages, and upon all occasions—Derham. 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 19 


LEARNING GOD THROUGH NATURE 


It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who 
makes a real and safe progress in the study of divine truths. 
One follows Nature and Nature’s God; that is, he follows 
God in His works and in His word.—Bolingbroke. 


GOD'S BEAUTIFUL WORKS cit 


If God hath made this world so fair, 
Where sin and death abound, 
How beautiful beyond compare 
Will paradise be found. 
—Montgomery. 


LOOKING THROUGH NATURE TO GOD 


Slave to no sect, who takes no private road 
But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God. 
— Pope. 


NATURE IS GOD’S BODY 


All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. 


-——Pope. 
EVERY BUSH AFIRE WITH GOD 
Earth’s crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God; 
And only he who sees takes off his shoes; 
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. 
—Browning. 


GOD PLANTED THE FIRST GARDEN 


God Almighty first planted a garden.—Bacon. “ 


NO ATHEISTS AT NIGHT 


By night an atheist half believes a God—Young. 


20 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


NATURE IS GOD’S ART 


Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art——Philip James 
Bailey. 


THE GROVES AS TEMPLES 


The groves were God’s first temples—Bryant. ” 


GOD MADE THE COUNTRY 


God made the country, and man made the town.—Cowper. ” 


GOD WALKS IN THE GARDEN 


A Garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! 
Rose plot, 
Fringed pool, 
Ferned grot, 
The veriest school of Peace; and yet the fool contends that 
God is not— 
Not God! in Gardens! when the eve is cool? 
Nay, but I have a sign: 
*Tis very sure God walks in mine. 
—Thomas Edward Brown. 


FOOL; CALL GOD NATURE 


Of what I call God, 
And fools call Nature. 
—Browning. 


GOD’S VOICE IN NATURE 


God hath a voice that ever is heard 

In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird; 
It comes in the torrent, all rapid and strong, 

In the streamlet’s soft gush as it ripples along; 

It breathes in the zephyr, just kissing the bloom; 
It lives in the rush of the sweeping simoon; 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 21 


Let the hurricane whistle or warblers rejoice, 
What do they tell thee but God hath a voice? 
God hath a presence, and that ye may see 
In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree; 
In the sun of the noon-day, the star of the night; 
In the storm-cloud of darkness, the rainbow of light; 
In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land; 
In the mountains of granite, the atom of sand; 
Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod, 
Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God? 
—Eliza Cook. 


GOD THE LIFE AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD 


‘Thou art, O God! the life and light 
Of all this wondrous world we see; 
Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
Are but reflections caught from Thee; 
Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine, 
And all things fair and bright are Thine. 
—T. Moore. 


MADNESS NOT TO SEE GOD IN NATURE 


He who perceives, as did Auguste Comte, that “the 
heavens declare no other glory than that of Hipparchus, of 
Kepler, of Newton, e¢ al.,’—he who gazes on the midnight 
heavens, who beholds the order of their march with its 
marvel and its mystery, and who interprets not their hiero- 
glyph upon the scrolls of space into the plain handwriting of 
Divinity—he who, in the music of the spheres, discerns 
not that the theme of this celestial opera in infinite refrain 
is God, God, Gop, he indeed is mad.—Rose Cleveland’s 
book, George Eliot’s Poetry and Other Studies, p. 67. 


GOD’S SOUL SHOWN IN HIS WORKS 


The painter’s. soul is, no doubt, thrown into his painting, 
and the sculptor’s and architect’s into their statues and 


22 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


buildings; but their souls meanwhile exist apart and are 
capable of other acts besides these. In a sense as true as it 
is grand, the soul of the Creator is streaming through the 
order and life of creation; but meanwhile he exists inde- 
pendent of and far above them.—McCosh. | 


THE SEASONS SHOW GOD'S WISDOM 


There are in the sumbeam three different principles,— 
the chemical, the luminiferous, and caloric; and each of 
these has a special function to discharge in relation to the 
plants of the earth. The chemical principle has a power- 
ful influence in germinating the plant: the luminous rays 
assist it in secreting from the atmosphere the carbon which 
it requires in order to its growth, while the heat-rays are 
required to nurture the seed, and form the reproductive ele- 
ments. Now it is a remarkable circumstance, that, accord- 
ing to Hunt, the first of these is most powerful, relatively 
to the others, in spring; that it decreases in summer, while 
the second becomes more powerful; and that in autumn 
both are lessened, while the third increases in force,—that 
is, each principle becomes potent at the very time when it 
is most required.—McCosh. 


THE FLOWERS REVEAL GOD 


Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies; 
Hold you there, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower; but if I could understand 
What you are—root and all, and all in all— 
I should know what God and man is. 
—Tennyson. 


THE FIRMAMENT GOD'S MANTLE 


It is but the outer hem of God’s great mantle that our 
poor stars do gem.—J. Ruskin. 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 23 


NATURE INSPIRES REVERENCE FOR GOD 


He who bridles the fury of the billows, knows also to 
put a stop to the secret plans of the wicked——Submitting to 
His Holy will, I fear God; I have no other fear—Racine. 


ALL NATURE HAS A VOICE TO TELL 


Words by J. Gichrist Lawson 


The God who formed the mountains great 
Can lift the soul to heights sublime; 

And He who formed the quiet vales 
Will fill the heart with peace divine. 


The One who made the earthly sun 

So full of power and warmth and might, 
Can cause the Sun of Righteousness 

To bathe the soul in floods of light. 


The boundless ocean e’er proclaims 
A God omnipotent to bless: 

The mighty billows are but types 
Of waves divine of righteousness. 


As rivers flow to earthly seas 
In deepening, widening, growing power; 
So peace which God alone can give 
Grows ever stronger hour by hour. 


The treasures hid in earthly caves 
Are only for a fleeting time; 
The riches which the Spirit shows. 
Are more than rubies, gold, or mine. 


The stars of heaven ever tell 
Of Christian hopes more bright than they. 
The tuneful birds and beauteous flowers 
Proclaim the wisdom of God’s way. 


24 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


All nature has a voice to tell 

Of God’s great power and love and grace. 
His Word and works then let us read 

Until we see Him face to face. 
GOD’S WISDOM AND LOVE SHOWN IN NATURE ~ 

God has not only created all things beautiful and wonder- 
ful in themselves; He has fitted them all to each other; He 
has made them all by weight and measure; He has formed 
them, as it were, with a balance in His hand, in such a way 
that if even one of them had been but a little greater or a 
little less in proportion to the others, this beautiful world 
would soon have fallen into ruins, and no living thing could 
have existed on it. | 

Do you wish examples of this? They are innumerable— 
the only difficulty is to choose which to tell you. Let us 
take the air as the first example. God created the atmos- 
phere on the second day. It has been reckoned that it sur- 
rounds the world to the height of about fifty miles above 
- our heads. It might seem to you a very trifling matter if it 
were a few miles more or less in height; and yet this would 
make a great difference to us. If it were a few miles less 
in height—as, for instance, at the top of Mont Blanc—the 
barometer would stand at sixteen inches, and men and ani- 
mals would soon be suffocated. If, on the contrary, it were 
a few miles more in height, the barometer would stand at 
more than forty-seven inches; it would be insupportably hot 
wherever the rays of the sun could reach, and your lungs 
could not bear it long. You may judge of it by the Dead 
Sea, where the atmosphere is only a quarter of a mile higher, 
and where the barometer stands at twenty-nine and three- 
quarters, but where the heat is excessive, and the air very 
irritating to the lungs, as we are told in the account of 
Lieutenant Lynch’s expedition. And if the atmosphere were 
higher still, the winds would be irresistible—our houses and 
our trees would be thrown down, we should take inflamma- 
tion in the lungs, and the nature of all things around us 
would be entirely changed. 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 25 


Take another example. On the third day God formed the 
seas and the dry land. If the dry land were a little harder 
than it is, we could not cultivate it—we could neither plow 
nor dig. The roots of the plants could not pierce the hard 
soil, and they would perish. If, on the contrary, the earth 
were softer than it is, we should sink in the soil, as we do 
in a plowed field after rain; and neither houses, trees, nor 
plants could be kept firm in the ground. If the water of the 
sea were heavier, all the fishes would be borne up to the 
surface, and would be unable to swim in it; and they would 
die as they do in the Dead Sea, whose water is only a 
quarter heavier than distilled water. And if the water of 
the sea were lighter, the fish would be too heavy to swim, 
and would sink down and die at the bottom. If the water 
of the sea and of the lakes, which always contracts and 
becomes heavier as it becomes colder, did not cease to obey 
this law at about the fourth degree above freezing point, 
the bottom of most of the seas and of all the lakes would 
be a mass of ice for the greater part of the year; whilst, 
on the other hand, by this admirable arrangement, their 
depths never freeze. : 

You may think, perhaps, that it would be a matter of in- 
difference to us whether our globe were a little larger or a 
little smaller than it is, since for so many years men lived 
upon it in total ignorance of its size. But there is a neces- 
sary proportion between the size and weight of the earth and 
the strength which God has given to our limbs and muscles. 
If, for example, we could be conveyed to the moon, and if it 
were like the earth in all respects except its size, we should 
there weigh five times less than we do upon earth. We 
might bound up like grasshoppers to a great height in the 
air, but we should be so unsteady on our limbs that the hand 
of a child could throw us over. And if our earth, on the 
contrary, were as large as the planet Jupiter, all other things 
remaining the same, each of us should feel as if we were 
forced to carry the weight of eleven people as heavy as our- 
selves. The weight of a man of ten stone would be 110 
stone, and none of us could walk or stand upright—scarcely 
even move. 


26 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Ah, let us repeat what we said before——“The work of the 
Lord is perfect. It is always good—very good.” 
—Professor L. Gaussen. 


GOD’S GREATNESS REVEALED IN NATURE 


About the time of the invention of the telescope, another 
instrument was formed which laid open a scene no less 
wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man with 
a discovery which serves to neutralize the whole of the 
argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to see 
a system in every star; the other leads me to see a world in 
every atom. The one taught me that this mighty globe, with 
the whole burden of its people, is but a grain of sand in the 
high field of immensity; the other teaches me that every 
erain of sand may harbor within it the tribes and the fami- 
lies of a busy population. The one told me of the insignifi- 
cance of the world I tread on; the other redeems it from all 
its insignificance; for it tells me that in the leaves of every 
forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in the waters 
of every rivulet there are worlds teeming with life, and 
numberless as are the glories of the firmament. ... By 
the one there is the discovery that no magnitude, however 
vast, is beyond the grasp of the Divinity; but by the other 
we have also discovered that no minuteness, however shrunk 
from the notice of the human eye, is beneath the condescen- 
sion of His regard.—Dr. Chalmers. 


GODS GENTLENESS REVEALED IN NATURE 


What is the dew upon the flower, but God’s gentle nur- 
turing of the most delicate and refined results of vegetation? 
What is the falling rain, but gentle drops of heaven’s love— 
distilling verdure upon the earth, and feeding the ear of 
corn to provide bread for man? Above all, what is light— 
penetrating, invigorating, inspiriting light—light, making the 
birds to sing with glee; light, making the beast of the field 
to bask in its warmth; light, making the insect happy, and 
the eagle to fix its gaze; light, unmeasured light, free to 


NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD QT 


the slave, wealth to the pauper? It is the gentle beam of love 
kindled in the eye of God, and looking tenderness and care 
upon all created things. Yes; we are encompassed with 
the gentleness of God, fructifying the earth, and urging her 
onward to fresh beauty and renewed fertility—J. C. M. 
Bellew. 


GOD'S NAME WRITTEN EVERYWHERE 


I read His awful name emblazoned high, 

With golden letters, on the illumined sky; 

Nor less the mystic characters I see 

Wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree: 

In every leaf that trembles to the breeze, 

I hear the voice of God among the trees. 
—Barbauld. 


THE UNIVERSE NOT AN ACCIDENT 


That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse | 


of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental 
jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious | 
treatise of philosophy.—Swift. 


EVERYTHING REVEALS FEATURES OF GOD = 


There’s nothing bright above, below, 

From flowers that bloom to stars that glow, 
But in its light mry soul can see 

Some feature of the Deity—Anon. 


FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR 


_ “How do you know,” a Bedouin was asked, “that there is 
a God?” “In the same way,” he replied, “that I know, on 
looking at the sand, when a man or a beast has crossed the 
desert—by His footprints in the world around me.’—Canon 
_ Liddon. 

NATURE CAUSED BY GOD 


Nature is but the name for an effect whose cause is God. 
—Murphy. 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 


THERE IS ONE GOD 


In the beginning God.—Gen. 1:1. 

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are 
all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom are all things, and we by him—1 Cor. 8:6. 

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and 
men, the|man Christ Jesus—1 Tim. 2:5. 

God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship 
him in spirit and in truth—John 4:24. 

Before me there was no God formed.—Isa. 43 :10. 

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, 
that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth 
beneath; there is none else.—Deut. 4:39. 


NO NEED TO PROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE vf 


The Bible does not attempt to prove God’s existence. Its 
first verse sets out with a story that God did, not with an 
argument to show that God is. ... None of the old pa- 
triarchs or prophets or preachers of righteousness, of whom 
the Bible tells, attempted to prove God’s existence. . 
The only reference in all the Bible to the idea . . . is where 
Paul speaks incidentally of the needlessness of such an at- 
tempt. He says that even the heathen know that there is a 
God—know it from the works of nature—‘so that they are 
without excuse” if they refuse to acknowledge and worship 
God.—H. C. Trumbull, in The Sunday-School Times. 


EVIDENCES OF GOD'S EXISTENCE 


Basil called the world a school, wherein reasonable souls 
are taught the knowledge of God. Ina musical instrument, 
28 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 29 


when we observe divers strings meet in harmony, we con- 
clude that some skillful musician tuned them. When we see 
thousands of men in a field, marshaled under several colors, 
all yielding exact obedience, we infer that there is a general, 
whose commands they are all subject to. In a watch, when | 
we take notice of great and small wheels, all so fitted as to 
concur to an orderly motion, we acknowledge the skill of an 
artificer. When we come into a printing-house, and see a 
great number of different letters so ordered as to make a 
book, the consideration hereof maketh it evident that there 
is a composer, by whose art they were brought into such a 
frame. When we behold a fair building, we conclude it had . 
an architect; a stately ship, well rigged, and safely con- 
ducted to the port, that it hath a pilot. So here: the visible 
world is such an instrument, army, watch, book, building, 
ship, as undeniably argueth a God, who was and is the tuner, 
general, and artificer, the composer, architect, and pilot of it. 
—Arrowsmith. 


CREATION, REGENERATION AND PROPHECY PROVE GOD’S 
EXISTENCE 


The beauty of the nearby dewdrop or the distant suns, 
the miracle of heart change and the marvels of prophecy 
alike proclaim that there is a God——Wnm. C. Allen. 


WHAT WE KNOW OF GOD 


1. We can not disprove his existence. On any theory of 

the world we have need of him. We must have all knowl- 
edge, or the one thing we do not know may be that there is 
a God; we must be everywhere, or in the one place where 
we are not God may be. In order to prove there is no God, 
we would need ourselves to become gods in knowledge and 
ubiquity. The atheist can not be certain of his creed. It is 
not axiomatic. He can not find a fact or truth from which 
it may be inferred. He can not frame a syllogism that 
_ will prove it. There is not a star, not a flower, not a blade 
Of grass that will agree with him. 


30 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


2. There is something now, and hence something has al- 
ways been and always will be, and that something ts God. 
Unless knowledge of any kind is impossible to us, there is 
something now. If ever there was a time when there was 
nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing could be now; it is an 
axiom that from nothing nothing comes. Hence it is most 
‘certain that something has been from all eternity. This 
something was independent, and must still be so, and no 
change in the universe can affect its existence. Therefore it 
will always exist; it inhabiteth eternity. Still further, what- 
ever now exists must have existed potentially in that which 
has always existed. Well, there are now such things as in- 
telligence, conscience, moral freedom, personality, and all 
other spiritual qualities. Then, this which has always been 
was a spiritual being, was God. Nor is this view invalidated 
by the fact that matter also was potentially in him; for evi- 
dently matter and all things proceeded from him; and what 
matter is, and that it could not be created by the eternal and 
almighty One, no man knows.—H. W. Everest. 


ALL CREATION PROCLAIMS A CREATOR 


The lofty mountains, the thunder of the cataract, the bois- 
terous sea, the flow of the rivers, the fruitful field, the lonely 
forest all bear impressive witness to a universal and won- 
derful Architect. Every humble blade of grass, each modest 
wild flower—the germination and growth of which science 
cannot explain—bear testimony to the marvelous handiwork 
of a supreme Creator. The stars in their courses tell of 2 
great Superintendent of the universe without whose control 
all things would collapse and perish. God 1s everywhere. 
The touch of his finger is detected in the far-off worlds—the 
music of the winds sings his praise—Wm. C. Allen. 


IS THERE A GOD? 


A fire-mist and a planet— 
A crystal and a cell— 
A jelly-fish and a saurian, 
And caves where the cave-men dwell; 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 31 


Then a sense of law and beauty, 
And a face turned-from the clod— 
Some call it Evolution, 
And others call it God. 
—William Herbert Carruth. 


PROPHECY PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE 


The most amazing fact of history is the realization of Bib- 
lical prophecy. Men of vastly different epochs, with widely 
diverse intellectual capacity, often unknown to each other, 
all dedicated to Jehovah, foretold with great variety of de- 
tail of the coming of One Who was to be the light and hope 
of the world. Their extraordinarily various predictions 
were realized in the personality of only one man, Jesus 
Christ. According to the lay of compound probability as 
applied to chance, there was not one possibility in very many 
millions of such a consummation of prediction. To assert 
that this is coincidence is absurd. The only explanation is 
that a supernatural authority was operating through these 
seers of successive centuries, and that when Jesus came he 
was really what he claimed to be—the incarnate Son of God. 
 —Wm. C. Allen, 


GOD'S EXISTENCE THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION 


The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. 
The whole building totters if the foundation be out of 
course; if we have not deliberate and right notions of it, we 
shall perfarm no worship, no service, yield no affection 
to him. If there be not a God, it is impossible there 
can be one; eternity is essential to the notion of a God; so 
_all religion would be vain and unreasonable, to pay homage 
to that which is not in being, nor ever can be.—Charnock. 


NO PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT GOD 


_ [have read up many queer religions; and there is nothing 
| Aaa the old thing, after all, I have looked into the most 


32 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


- philosophical systems, and have found none that will work 
without a God.—J. C. Maxwell. 


DERZHAVIN’S RUSSIAN ODE * 


I am, O God, and surely Thou must be! 

Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art! 
Direct my understanding, then, to Thee; 

Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart. 


DR. GALEN CONVINCED 


When Galen, a celebrated physician, but atheistically in- 
_ clined, had anatomized the human body, and carefully sur- 
veyed the frame of it, viewed the fitness and usefulness of 
every part of it and the many several intentions of every 
little vein, bone and muscle, and the beauty of the whole, he 
fell into a fit of devotion, and wrote a hymn to his Creator. 
—Arvine. — 


WHO TAUGHT THE BIRD? 


Who taught the bird to build her nest 
Of wool and hay and moss? 

Who taught her how to weave it best 
And lay the twigs across ? 

Who taught the busy bee to fly 
Among the sweetest flowers, 

And lay her store of honey by 
To last in winter’s hours? 


Who taught the little ant the way 
_ Its narrow nest to weave, 
And, through the pleasant summer day, 

To gather up its leaves? 
’Twas God who taught them all the way, 

And gave them little skill. 
He teaches children, when they pray, 

To do His holy will. 

—Jane Taylor. 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD Bo 


PALEY’S WATCH ARGUMENT, A.D. 1818, 


In crossing a heath, suppose . . . that I had found a 
watch, . . . and it should be inquired how the watch hap- 
pened to be in that place; I should hardly think to answer 
. that for anything that I knew, the watch might have 
always been there. . . . Forthis reason, . . . that when 
we come to inspect the watch, we perceive ... that its 
several parts are framed and put together for a purpose 
(etc.). Suppose . . . that it possessed the unexpected 
property of producing . . . another watch like itself... . 
No one can rationally believe that the (former) . . 
watch from which the (latter) watch . . . issued was. 
the proper cause of the mechanism. . . . Nor is anything 
- gained by running the difficulty farther back, 4e., by sup- 
‘posing the watch . . . to have been produced from an- 
_ other watch, that from a former, and so on indefinitely... . 
A chain composed of an infinite number of links can no 
more support itself than a chain composed of a finite num- 
ber of links. . . . The machine which we are inspecting 
demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. 
Contrivance must have had a contriver; design, a designer ; 
whether the machine immediately proceeded from another 
machine or not. . . . Every indication of contrivance,— 
manifestation of design —which exists in the watch, exists 
in the works of nature (etc., etc.) —Natural Theology, or 
Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, 


f Chapters I., I., III. 


AN ATHEIST CONVINCED 


_ Dr. Marshall, a lecturer on anatomy, had deeply studied 
the construction and laws of man, and was never happier 
_ than when explaining them. He once devoted a whole lec- 

_ ture to display the profound science that was visible in the 
formation of the double hinges of our joints. Such was 
the effect of his demonstrations that an inquisitive friend, 
_who had accompanied Dr, Turner to the lecture, with skepti- 
_ cal inclinations, suddenly exclaimed with great emphasis, 


34. GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


“A man must be a fool, indeed, who after duly studying his 
own body can remain an atheist.”—Arvine. 


AUGUSTINE'S EXTENSIVE SEARCH FOR GOD y 


, 


I asked the earth, and it answered, “I am not He;” and 
whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked 
the sea and the things therein, and they replied, “We are 
not thy God; seek higher.” I asked the air with its inhabi- 
tants; it answered, “I am not thy God.” I asked the heavens 
—the sun, moon and stars. “Neither,” they said, “are we 
the God whom thou seekest.” And I answered. unto all 
these, “Ye have told me that ye are not He; tell me some- 
thing about Him.” And with a loud voice they exclaimed, 
“He made us.”—Confessions, Bk. X., Ch. VIII. 


YOUNG'S TWO LITTLE NIGHT THOUGHTS 


One sun by day; by night ten thousand shine, 
And light us deep into the Deity ; 

How boundless in magnificence and might! 

O, what a confluence of ethereal fires 

From urns unnumber’d, down the steeps of heav’n 
Streams to a point, and centers in my sight! 


By night an atheist half believes in a God. 


CREATION SUPERNATURAL 


What could be more foolish than to think that all this rare 
fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all 
the skill of art is not able to make an oyster.—Jeremy 
Taylor. 


CREATION BEYOND THE SKILL OF ART | 


There is something in the nature of things which the mind 
of man, which reason, which human power cannot effect, 
and certainly that which produces this must be better than 
man. What can this be but God ?—Cicero. 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 35 


CAN NOT DISPROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE 


The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is 
not, discovers to me his existence.—Bruyere. 


GOD IN SCIENCE, HISTORY AND CONSCIENCE © 


There is a God in science, a God in history, and a God in 
conscience, and these three are one-—Joseph Cook. 


NATURE GOD'S HIEROGLYPHICS 


The world of nature is throughout a witness for the 
world of spirit, proceeding from the same root, and being 
constituted for this very end. The characters of nature 
which everywhere meet the eye are not a common but a 
sacred writing—they are the hieroglyphics of God—Trench. 


DESIGN SHOWN IN CREATION 


A man that should meet with a palace beset with pleasant 
gardens, adorned with stately avenues, furnished with well- 
contrived aqueducts, cascades, and all other appendages con- 
ducing to convenience or pleasure, would easily imagine that 
proportionable architecture and magnificence were within ; 
but we should conclude the man was out of his wits that 
should assert and plead, that all was the work of chance, or 
other than of some wise and skillful hand. And so, when we 
survey the bare outworks of this our globe; when we see 
so vast a body accoutered with so noble a furniture of air, 
light, and gravity; with everything, in short, that is neces- 
sary to the preservation and security of the globe itself, or 
that conduceth to the life, health, and happiness, to the pro- 
pagation and increase, of all the prodigious variety of crea- 
tures the globe is stocked with; when we see nothing want- 
ing, nothing redundant or frivolous, nothing botching or ill 
made, but everything, even in the very appendages alone, 
exactly answereth all its ends and occasions,—what else can 
be concluded but that all was made with manifest design, 


86 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


and that all the whole structure is the work of some intelli- 
gent Being, some Artist of power and skill equivalent to 
such a work ?>—Derham. 


THE WITNESS OF GOD'S SPIRIT 


The devout man does not only believe, but feels there is a 
Deity. He has actual sensations of Him; his experience 
concurs with his reason; he sees Him more and more in all 
his intercourses with Him, and even in this life almost loses 
his faith in conviction.—Addison, 1672-17109. 


MAN’S NATURE REQUIRES GOD 


If it (the idea of the existence of God) is interwoven with 
the mind, if it is part of the soul’s original furniture, it is 
folly to talk of its having been evolved, and equal folly to 
doubt that it is God’s own appointed witness to the truth 
of His existence—Lorimer. 


CONVINCED BY A LEAF 


When the Rev. John Thorpe, of Masborough, in York- 
shire, England, had preached for about two years, he was 
greatly harassed with temptations to atheism, which con- 
tinued, with a few intervals, many months. His distress 
sometimes, on this account? was so great as to embarrass 
his mind beyond description. At length, however, he was 
happily delivered by the following occurrence :— 

Passing through a wood, with a design to preach in a 
neighboring village, while he was surveying his hand, a leaf 
accidentally stuck between his fingers. He felt a powerful 
impression to examine the texture of the leaf. Holding it 
between his eye and the sun, and reflecting upon its exqui- 
sitely curious and wonderful formation, he was led into an 
extensive contemplation on the works of creation. Tracing 
these back to their first cause, he had, in a moment, such 
a conviction of the existence and ineffable perfections of 
God, which then appeared, that his distress was removed ; 
and he prosecuted his journey, rejoicing in God, and admir- 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 37 


ing him in every object that presented itself to his view.— 


Arvine. 
CONVINCED BY A FLOWER 


A magazine writer tells of a gentleman who had the mis- 
fortune to be an unbeliever. One day he was walking in 
the woods reading the writings of Plato. He came to where 
the great writer uses the phrase “geometrizing.” He thought 
to himself, “If I could see a plan and order in God’s works, 
I could be a believer.” Just then he saw a little “Texas 
star’ at his feet. He picked it up, and thoughtlessly began 
to count its petals. He found there were five. He counted 
the stamens, and there were five of them. He counted the 
divisions at the base of the flower; there were five of them. 
He then set about multiplying these three fives to see how 
many chances there were of a flower being brought into 
existence without the aid of mind, and having in it these 
three fives. The chances against it were one hundred and 
twenty-five to one. He thought that was very strange. He 
examined another flower, and found it the same. He mul- 
tiplied one hundred and twenty-five by itself to see how 
many chances there were against there being two flowers, 


each having these exact relations of numbers. He found 


the chances against it were fifteen thousand six hundred and 
twenty-five to one. But all around him were multitudes of 
these little flowers; they had been growing and blooming 
there for years. He thought this showed the order of in- 
telligence, and that the mind that ordained it was God. And 
so he shut up his book, and picked up the little flower, and 
kissed it, and exclaimed, “Bloom on, little flower; sing on, 
little birds; you have a God, and I have a God; that God 
that made these little flowers made me.’’—Foster. 


REASON DEMANDS A GOD 


He who can imagine the universe fortuitous or self- 
created is not a subject for argument, provided he has the 
power of thinking, or even the faculty of seeing. He who 
_ sees no design cannot claim the character of a philosopher ; 


88 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


for philosophy traces means and ends. He who traces no 
causes must not assume to be a metaphysician; and if he 
does trace them, he must arrive at a first cause. And he who 
perceives no final causes is equally deficient in metaphysics 
and in natural philosophy; since, without this, he cannot 
generalize—can discover no plan where there is no pur- 
pose. But if he who can see a creation without seeing 
a creator has made small advances in knowledge, so he 
who can philosophize on it, and not feel the eternal pres- 
ence of its Great Author, is little to be envied, even as 
a mere philosopher; since he deprives the universe of all its 
grandeur, and himself of the pleasures springing from those 
exalted views which soar beyond the details of tangible 
forms and common events. And if with that presence 
around him he can be evil, he is an object of compassion; 
for he will be rejected by him whom he opposes or rejects. 
—Dr. Macculloch. 


CREATION NOT THE RESULT OF CHANCE 


We have passed from planet to planet, from sun to sun, 
from system to system; we have reached beyond the limits 
of this mighty solar cluster with which we are allied; we 
have found other island universes sweeping through space; 
the great unfinished problem still remains,—Whence came 
this universe? Have all these stars which glitter in the 
heavens been shining from all eternity? Has our globe been 
rolling round the sun for ceaseless ages? Whence came 
this magnificent architecture, whose architraves rise in splen- 
dor before us in every direction? Is it all the work of 
chance? Ianswer, No! It is not the work of chance. Who 
shall reveal to us the true cosmography of the universe by 
which we are surrounded? It is the work of an Omnipotent 
Architect. Around us and above us rise sun and system, 
cluster and universe; and I doubt not, that, in every region 
of this vast empire of God, hymns of praise and anthems 
of glory are rising and reverberating from sun to sun, and 
from system to system, heard by Omnipotence alone across 
immensity and through eternity——Prof. Mitchell. 


THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 39 — 


DESIGN SHOWN IN CREATION 


“In the corner of a little garden,’ said Dr. Beattie of 
Aberdeen, “without informing any one of the circumstance, 
I wrote in the mold with my finger the three initial letters 
of my son’s name, and sowed garden-cress in the furrows, 
covered up the seed, and smoothed the ground. Ten days 
after this he came running up to me, and with astonish- 
ment in his countenance told me his name was growing in 
the garden. I laughed at the report, and seemed to disre- 
gard it, but he insisted on my going to see what had hap- 
pened. ‘Yes,’ said I carelessly, ‘I see it is so, but what is 
there in this worth notice? Is it not mere chance?’ ‘It can- 
not be so,’ he said; “somebody must have contrived matters 


so as to produce it.’ ‘Look at yourself,’ I replied, ‘and con- 


sider your hands and fingers, your legs and feet; came you 
hither by chance?’ ‘No, he answered, ‘something must have 
made me.’ ‘And who is that something?’ I asked. He said, 
“T don’t know.’ I told him the name of that Great Being 
who had made him and all the world. This lesson affected 
him greatly, and he never forgot either it or the circum- 
stance that introduced it.”—Foster. 


GOD ENDURES FOREVER 


Darkness is strong, and so is sin, 
But surely God endures forever. 


—Lowell. 
GOD IS OVERHEAD 
But I believe that God is overhead 
And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead. 
—Mary Mapes Dodge. 
GOD IS LIVING © 


God is living, working still. 
John S. Dwight. 


ALL IS WELL WHEN GOD REIGNS 


God is and all is well. —Whittier. 


ETERNITY OF GOD 
GOD IS ETERNAL 


Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only 
wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.— 
LEU Vk Gig hee 3 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou 
hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting 
to everlasting, thou art God.—Ps. 90:2. 

But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remem- 
brance unto all generations.—Ps. 102:12. 

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the 
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the 
earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching 
of his understanding.—Isa. 40 :28. 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and 
to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.—Psa. 41:13. 


DEFINITION OF GOD'S ETERNITY 


One of the deaf and dumb pupils in the institution of 
Paris, being desired to express his idea of the eternity of the 
Deity, replied, “Ir is duration, without beginning or end; 
existence without bound or dimension; present, without past 
or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age; 
life without birth or death; to-day without yesterday or to- 
morrow.’—Arvine. 3 


GOD’S ETERNITY INCOMPREHENSIBLE 


“In the beginning”: when was that? By what innumer- 
able stages, through what immense eras, the imagination 
must travel in order to reach it! Not the least of the many 
benefits which modern science has conferred upon us is the 

40 


ETERNITY OF GOD AY 


_ enlargement of our conceptions concerning time. How vast 
a period is a thousand years! How far off it seems since 
Alfred the Great ascended the English throne, yet it is not 
quite a thousand years ago. Last week I saw in the Exeter 
Museum a mummy that is supposed to have been embalmed 
in the days of Hezekiah. What marvelous revolutions have 
taken place since that mummy was a living man! How old 
we should have thought him had he lived till now! Yet he 
would have been quite a juvenile beside Adam had he-not 
drawn upon himself the curse of death. How far off seems 
the time when our first parents dwelt in paradise! And yet 
what an insignificant period is that compared with the ages 
which have elapsed since the granite which forms the first 
courses of our new chapel was a molten fluid! What a mys- 
tery is time, stretching ever backward, past the hour when 
_ at the laying of the earth’s foundations “the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy!” past 
the hour when those “morning stars” and “sons of God” 
were called into being! But when in thought we have 
reached this dateless period, when we have gone beyond it, 
and find ourselves in a vast void where no star shines and 
no seraph sings, even then we find ourselves in the presence 
of God. We can think of all things and persons besides 
Him coming into existence, but the thought of the birth of 
God is one which the mind refuses to entertain. He is the 
great I AM, to whom one day is as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day. He is “the high and lofty one 
that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.” Let us bow 
in reverence before Him. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwell- 
ing-place in all generations. Before the mountains were 
brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the 
world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.” 


- —R. A. Bertram. 


ETERNITY TOO VAST FOR THE HUMAN MIND 


When creation began, we know not. There were angels 
and there was a place of angelic habitation, before the crea- 
tion of man, and of the world destined for his residence ; 


42 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


and even among these pure, spiritual essences there had 
been a rebellion and fall. How long these spirits had ex- 
isted, and how many other orders of things besides, it is vain 
to conjecture; for conjecture could lead to nothing. surer 
than itself. But of one thing we are certain, that how far 
back soever we suppose the commencement of creation car- 
ried, let it be not only beyond the actual range (if a definite 
range it may be said to have) of the human imagination, but 
even beyond the greatest amount of ages and figures, in any 
way combined, could be made to express ; still there was an 
eternity preceding, an eternity from which this unimaginable 
and incomputable duration has not made the minutest deduc- 
tion; for it is the property of eternity, that it can be neither 
lengthened by additions, nor shortened by subtraction of the 
longest possible periods of time. Before the commencement 
of creation, therefore, before the fiat of Omnipotence, which 
gave being to the first dependent existence and dated the 
beginning of time, in infinite and incomprehensible solitude, 
yet in the boundless self-sufficiency of his blessed nature, 


feeling no want and no dreariness, Jehovah had, from eter-_ 


nity, existed alone. There is something awfully sublime in 
this conception of Deity. Our minds are overwhelmed when 
we attempt to think of infinite space, even as it is replen- 
ished with its millions of suns and systems of inhabited 
worlds; but still more are they baffled and put to a stand 
when we try to form a conception of immensity before sun 
or star existed, before any creature had a being, of immensity 
filled with nothing but the pure, ethereal essence of the great 
uncreated Spirit. When we think of the millions of worlds, 
with all their interminable varieties of spiritual and material, 
animate and inanimate, brute and intelligent, tribes of be- 
ings, there is unavoidably in our minds the conception of 
Deity as having, in the superintendence of all his works of 
power, wisdom, and goodness, both incessant occupation 
and exhaustless sources of enjoyment—Dr. Wardlaw. 


REASON TOTTERS AT ETERNITY 


If we can keep our minds calm on the subject of the 
“Eternity of God,” if reason does not totter on her seat at 


i) 


ETERNITY OF GOD 43 


the contemplation of underived existence, it will be strange 
if any other mystery relating to God should disturb us. He 
who can bring his reason to bow reverently at the idea of 
a Being who had no beginning is well prepared to receive 
any communication of His will—Nehemiah Adams. 


CROSBY'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 


We can have no conception of God himself, except as in 
time and space.—Madison Peters’ Great Hereafter, p. 389. 


SUPREMACY OF GOD 


GOD ONLY IS OMNIPOTENT 


.__..There is but one Omnipotent power. If there be two Om- 
nipotents, then we must always suppose a contest between 
these two: that which one would do, the other power being 
equal, would oppose, and so all things would be brought into 
confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of equal power, 
one would be ever crossing the other: when one would sail, 
the other would cast anchor: here were a confusion, and the 
ship must needs perish. The order and harmony in the 
world, the constant and uniform government of all things, is 
a clear argument that there is but one Omnipotent, one God 
that rules all. “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside 
Me there is no God.”—Watson, 1696. 


THE KORAN ON GOD’S SUPREMACY 


When Abraham set out on his travels, he was insufficiently 
acquainted with religious truth. He saw the star of the eve- 
ning, and he said to his followers, “This is my God!’ But 
the star went down, and Abraham exclaimed, “I care not 
for any gods that set!” When the moon arose, he said, 
“This is my God!” But the moon, too, went down. Then 
the sun arose, and he saluted it as Divine; but the wheeling 
sky carried the king of day behind the flaming pines of the 
west. And Abraham, in the holy twilight, turning his face 
toward the assenting azure, said to his people, “I give my- 
self to Him who is . . . the Father of the stars and moon 
and sun, and who never sets, because He is the Eternal 
Noon!”—The Koran. 


HINDOOS AND GOD'S SUPREMACY 


Rev. W. Arthur narrates an interview with an aged Hin- 
doo. The latter said, “Some time ago one of our people 


44 


SUPREMACY OF GOD A5 


went to your house, you took him into your room and said 
a great deal of sense to him, and gave him a book. It was 
the first that had ever been in our town. We assembled and 
read it together. It certainly was a very wise book, but had 
one fault that very much surprised us all.” What this grave 
fault was he refused to tell till he had been repeatedly urged 
to do so. He at length said, “The fault was this: it would 
not allow of any God but one! Now what do you say to 
that?” He had rightly apprehended the unity of the God 
of the Bible. It leaves no place for his polytheistic faith.— 
’ Foster. 


_ INDIAN BOYS DEFINE GOD'S SUPREMACY 
A missionary in India was catechizing the children of one 


of the schools. A Brahmin interrupted him, saying that the 
‘Spirit of man and the spirit of God were one. The mission- 


he ary called on the boys to refute it, by stating the difference 


between the spirit of man and God. They gave the follow- 
ing answers: “The spirit of man is created—God is its 
creator ; the spirit of man is full of sin—God is a pure spirit; 
the spirit of man is subject to grief—God is infinitely 
blessed, and incapable of suffering. These two spirits can 
never be one.”—Foster. | 


GOD ALONE CAN SATISFY 


Believe me, I speak it deliberately and with full convic- 
tion: I have enjoyed many of the comforts of life, none of 
which I wish to esteem lightly ; often have I been charmed 
with the beauties of nature, and refreshed with her bounti- 
ful gifts. I have spent many an hour in sweet meditation, 
and in reading the most valuable productions of the wisest 
men. I have often been delighted with the conversation of 
ingenious, sensible, and exalted characters; my eyes have 
been powerfully attracted by the finest productions of hu- 
man art, and my ears by enchanting melodies. I have found 
pleasure when calling into activity the powers of my own 
mind; when residing in my own native land, or traveling 
_ through foreign parts; when surrounded by large and splen- 


46 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


did companies, still more when moving in the small endear- 
ing circle of my own family: yet, to speak the truth before 
God, who is my judge, I must confess I know not any joy 
that is so dear to me; that so fully satisfies the inmost de- 
sires of my mind; that so enlivens, refines and elevates my 
whole nature, as that which I derive from religion, from 
faith in God: as one who is not only the parent of men, but 
has condescended, as a brother, to clothe Himself with our 
nature. Nothing affords me greater delight than a solid 
hope that I partake of His favors, and rely on His never- 
failing support and protection... . He who has been 
so often my hope, my refuge, my confidence, when I stood 
upon the brink of an abyss where I could not move one step 
forward; He who, in answer to my prayer, has helped me 
when every prospect of help vanished; that God who has 
safely conducted me, not merely through flowery paths, but 
likewise across precipices and burning sands ;—may this God 
be thy God, thy comfort, as He has been mine !—Lavater. 


GOD ONLY WORTH KNOWING 


There is nothing on earth worth being known but God and 
our own souls.—Bailey. 


SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD 


GOD REIGNS 


It is a great truth, “God reigns,” and therefore grace 
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus 
Christ our Lord; and, therefore, no sinner on earth need 
ever despair—Ichabod Spencer. ~ 


GOD DIRECTS THE UNIVERSE 


The hand of God never tires, nor are its) movements aim- 
less. It makes all things subservient to its designs, and, at 
every turn, disappoints the calculations of man, causing the 
most insignificant events to expand to the mightiest conse- 


quences, while those that have the appearance of mountains 


vanish into nothing.—John Lanahan. 


GOD’S MOVEMENTS NOT AIMLESS 


Have faith! where’er thy bark is driven,— 
The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth,— 
Know this! God rules the host of heaven, 
The inhabitants of earth. 
—Schiller. 


GOD RULES HEAVEN AND EARTH 


King Porus, when Alexander asked him, being then his 
prisoner, how he would be used, answered in one word, 
_“Basilikeios;” that is, “Like a king.” Alexander again re- 
plying, “Do you desire nothing else ?”—‘‘No,” said he: “all 
things are in this one word, ‘Like a king.’” Whereupon 
_ Alexander restored him again. But this has not always been 
_ the happiness of kings and princes. Yet he that hath God 
hath all things, because God is all things. Take a pen, and 


47 


48 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


write down riches, honors, preferments, they are but as so 
many ciphers; they signify nothing: but write down God 
alone, and he will raise them to thousands, hundreds of 
thousands. And then it is that a Christian is truly happy,— 
when he can find himself and all things in his God— 
Spencer. 

GOD ALL IN ALL 


The moral government of God is a movement in a line 
onward towards some grand consummation, in which the 
principles, indeed, are ever the same, but the developments 
are always new,—in which, therefore, no experience of the 
past can indicate with certainty what new openings of truth, 
what new manifestations of goodness, what new phases of 
the moral heaven may appear—Mark Hopkins. 


GOD'S GOVERNMENT MOVES FORWARD 


Converting grace puts God on the throne, and the world 
at His footstool; Christ in the heart, and the world under 
His feet—Joseph Alleine. 


GOD ON THE THRONE “ 


O God, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come, 
Be Thou our guard while troubles last, 
And our eternal home! 
—Watts. 


GOD GUIDING ALL 


Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art! 
Direct my understanding then to Thee; 
Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart: 
Though but an atom midst immensity. 
—Derzhavin. 
GOD OMNIPOTENT 


Can we outrun the heavens? 
—Shakespeare. 


d 


SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD 49 


SUBMISSION TO GOD 


If the barbarian ambassador came expressly to the Ro- 
mans, to negotiate, on the part of his country, for permis- 
sion to be their servants, declaring that a voluntary sub- 
mission to a foreign power was preferable to a wild and 
disorderly freedom, well may the Christian triumph in the 
peace to be obtained by an unreserved submission to Him 
_ who is emphatically called the God of order—Buck. 


GOD GOVERNS 


_ God governs in the affairs of men; and if a sparrow can- 
not fall to the ground without His notice, neither can a 
_ kingdom rise without His aid—Benjamin Franklin, 


GOD OVERTHREW NAPOLEON 


Was it possible that Napoleon should win the battle of 
Waterloo? We answer, No! Why? Because of Welling- 
@ ton’ Because of Blucher’ No! Because of God! For 
_ Bonaparte to conquer at Waterloo was not the law of the 
_ nineteenth century. It was time that this vast man should 
_ fall. He had been impeached before the Infinite! He had 

vexed God! Waterloo was not a battle. It was the change 
of front of the Universe !—Victor Hugo. 


THE WICKED CANNOT ESCAPE 


However wickedness outstrips men, it has no wings to fly 
from God.—Shakespeare. 


GOD'S WILL IS PERFECT 


_ God’s will is the very perfection of all reason—Edward 
) Payson. 


PERSONALITY OF GOD 


MEANING OF GOD'S PERSONALITY 


A stone is not a person, for it can do nothing. The animal 
that is controlled by instinct is not a person. The piston-rod 
of an engine that goes in and out as the steam compels i 
only a thing. But God is free, God is absolute. He enter- 
tains purposes, he invents, he puts forth volitions, he is the 
author of free moral beings. He must have been free, for 
there was nothing outside of him, and hence nothing to com- 
pel any definite condition. If he were matter, he would have” 
no power of volition; if he were a diffused force, as elec- 
tricity is supposed to be, he would be subject to attraction 
and repulsion; if he were only a quality or an attribute of 
something, he could not originate anything, and could not 
be God.—H. W. Everest. 


GOD A PERSON, NOT A POWER 


There are those who give out the notion that what we 
call Deity is “the Power that worketh for righteousness.” 
There is being suggested something that sounds like pan- 
theism. There are powers in the world: gravitation, elec- 
tricity, etc., but one could not look to any one of these as to 
a friend who could say, “I have loved thee with an ever- 
lasting love.””—John Hall. 


‘D'ISRAELY’S LOTHAIR SAVED FROM ATHEISM 


“T wish that I could assure myself of the personality of 
the Creator,” said Lothair; “I cling to that, but they say that 
it is unphilosophical!”’ “In what sense,” asked the Syrian; 
“is it more unphilosophical to believe in a personal God, 
omnipotent and omniscient, than in natural forces, uncon- 
scious and irresistible? Is it unphilosophical to combine 
power with intellect ?” 


50 


VHE PRENTRY: OF (GOD 


TRINITY OF GOD DESCRIBED 


As the sun hath three distinct properties,—as the globe, 
the light, and the heat,—and though each of these keeps 


its distinct traits, there is but one sun, not three suns; so 


in Deity, the unity of essence is not taken away by distinc- 
tion of persons; and yet there is no confounding of persons, 
or changing of one into another. As there is but one sun 
throughout the whole world, no more is there but one God. 
As the sun shows himself by his beams, so God the Father 
shows himself by his Son Jesus Christ, who is his Word and 


- Eternal Wisdom. As the sun by his heat makes us feel his 


force, so God makes us feel his Holy Spirit, which is his 
infinite power—Cawdray. 


TERTULLIAN ON THE TRINITY 


We worship unity in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither 


confounding the person nor dividing the substance. There 


is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another 
of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, and of 
~ the Son, and of. the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, 
- the majesty co-eternal—Tertullian. 


TRINITY COMPARED TO A LIGHT 


Tell me how it is that in this room there.are three candles 
and but one light, and I will explain to you the mode of the 
Divine existence—John Wesley. 


TRINITY COMPARED TO WATER, ICE AND SNOW? 


Snow is water, and ice is water, and water is water ; these 
three are one.—Joseph Dare. 


531 


coe 


52 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


THE TRINITY IN LIGHT 


Light is composed of three parts, one visible and two in- 
visible,—first, illuminative rays, which affect our vision ; sec- 
ond, chemical rays, which cause growth and give the results 
of photography; third, the principle called heat, and sep- 
arate from either. So there are three persons in one God, 
one visible and two invisible. These component parts are 
capable of separation and independent action. Each can be 
sundered from the other, and still retain its full efficiency.— 
Bishop Warren. 


THE TRINITY IN WATER 


A converted Indian gave the following reason for his be- 
lief in the Trinity: “We go down to the river in Winter, and 
we see it covered with snow; we dig through the snow, and 
we come to the ice; we chop through the ice, and we come 
to the water. Snow is water, ice is water, water is water; 
therefore the three are one.’’—Selected. 


Se 


4 = em heated ~ 


GOD THE CREATOR 


GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE 


As a man exhibits himself in physical forms and actions, 
so there is one other Spirit, a great, wide, mighty, infinite, 
eternal Spirit back there in the depths of space, and in the 
present, and in the future, and in the abysses of space, who 
at His will wrestles into existence great globes, and keeps 
them in their position. He builds them, and places on them 
these mysterious forms of earth which are signals hung out 
over these abysses to tell coming spirits who He is, what He 
is, what He does, how high is His throne, and how vast is 
His power from eternity to eternity, from infinity to infinity 
through all ages of all time; He is holding forth to men and 
angels these external tokens of His almighty power, of His 
infinite skill, and of His everlasting love-——Bishop R. S. 
Foster. 


REASON ACCEPTS GOD AS CREATOR 


The demand of the human understanding for causation 
requires but the one old and only answer, God.—Dexter. 


GOD THE GREAT “FIRST CAUSE” 


Let the chain of second causes be ever so long, the first 
link is always in God’s hand.—Lavington. 


REASON LEADS TO GOD AS CREATOR 


The world we inhabit must have had an origin; that 
origin must have consisted in a cause; that cause must have 
been intelligent; that intelligence must have been supreme; 
and that supreme, which always was and is supreme, we 
know by the name of God.—Selected. 


33 


54 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


ATHEISM LEADS TO AN ABYSS 


Everywhere we see a chain of effects and causes, of ends 
and means; and since nothing has come of itself into the 
state in which it is, it always thus indicates, farther back, 
another thing as its cause, which renders necessary exactly 
the same farther inquiry; so that in such a way the great 
whole must sink into the abyss of nothing, if we did not 
admit of something, of itself originally and independently 
external to this infinite contingent, which maintained it, and, 
as the cause of its origin, secured its duration—Kant. 


GOD OR EVOLUTION 


But there is a theory called evolution, atheistic evolu- 
tion, according to which the world made itself. Evolution is 
a machine for the manufacture of worlds, and all things 
therein—suns, planets, continents, plants, animals, men, 
philosophers, religions and evolution theories. This ma- 
chine is made up of many parts—matter, force, eternal 
change, life potencies in dead matter, tendency to variation, 
natural selection and survival of the fittest. These parts are 
nicely adjusted and work harmoniously. It is wonderful 
what variety, what complications, and what contradictory 
products this machine has been turning out during all the 
ages! matter and spirit, life and death, sin and holiness, true 
and false philosophies, science and “science falsely so 
called,” evolutionists and anti-evolutionists. Now, all: the 
wisdom, science and law manifest in these products must be 
in this machine. Who made this machine, for it is more 
wonderful than anything else? Was it evolved by a pre- 
vious evolution? Did it have a father, a grandfather, and 
who was the Adam of this genealogical line? Evolution in- 
creases the need of God; for if it is a reality, it is the biggest 
thing in existence, excepting its Maker. No, going back 
however far, we can not get beyond God. 

Again, since as we go back along the chain of causations 
we must stop somewhere, why not stop with the world as it 
is? Why not say that the material world as we find it 


GOD THE CREATOR 55 


is eternal; it is the first link; it had no cause? Would this 
be more mysterious than God? We can not stop short of an 
adequate cause. Mere dead matter and blind force are not 
adequate causes of spiritual effects. Thought, purpose and 
goodness must be accounted for, as well as atoms and suns, 
with all between them. 

As a last resort, it is said that God is incomprehensible. 
Who is he? Where is he? What was he doing during the 
eternity gone? Why should he have contrived a universe 
composed of such curious and wonderful things? Why did 
he not make a better world? Could he, and would he not? 
Or would he, and could he not? Why does he permit sin? 
Why not strike down the sinner with his thunderbolts ? 
Why not, at once, blot out all the race—a race that finds 
its chief glory in the carnage of battle? Does he exist 
alone? Alone in the infinite solitudes of space, alone in the 
finite isolations of eternity? Yes, he is incomprehensible. 
If he came within the limits of our finite intelligence, he 
would not be God.—H. W. Everest. 


ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 


GOD'S ATTRIBUTES BLEND TOGETHER 


As the boundless fields of stellar systems, in a particular 
region of the heavens, appear one immense and cloudless 
scene of light; but when contemplated with the aid of the 
telescope, each constellation is distinctly seen emitting its 
radiations of light, and contributing to form this blaze of 
splendor; so it is in regard to the Divine nature: the whole 
is resplendent with inconceivable grandeur, and yet each per- 
fection possesses a distinct glory, and contributes its rays to 
reveal the character of Him who “is Light, and in whom is 
no darkness at all.” Or like the prismatic colors, each dis- 
tinct, and in the perfection of beauty ; and yet all blending in 
one beam of light—Ewing. 


PERFECTION. OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES 


There is all possible perfection in God. In Him absolutely 
‘is fullness. All life is in God, life in all its varieties. Je- 
hovah is the living God. All wisdom is in God: He is “the 
only wise God.” All purity is in God: “God is light.” All 
righteousness is in God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God 
Almighty.” All love is in God: “God is love.” These sev- 
eral attributes are not only individually complete, but perfect 
in their harmony. They combine as the prismatic colors in 
light, and unite as the several gases which constitute the at- 
mosphere, and they blend as the hues of the rainbow.—S. 
Martin. 


GLORY OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES 


The creature is nothing in comparison with God; all the 
glory, perfection, and excellency of the whole world do not 


amount to the value of a unit in regard of God’s attributes; 


56 


oath ee ‘i . 7 i 
a a ee ee ee NS 


r\ 


ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 57 


join ever so many of them together, they cannot make one 
in number; they are nothing in His regard, and less than 
nothing. All created beings must utterly vanish out of sight 
when we think of God. As the sun does not annihilate the 
stars, and make them nothing, yet it annihilates their ap- 
pearances to our sight ; some are of the first magnitude, some 
of the second, some of the third, but in the daytime all are 
alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory: so it is here, there 
are degrees of perfection and excellency, if we compare one 
creature with another, but let once the glorious brightness. 
of God shine upon the soul, and in that light all their dif- 
ferences are unobserved. Angels, men, worms, they are all 
nothing, less than nothing, to be set up against God. This 
magnificent title, “I am,” darkens all, as if nothing else were. 
—Manton, 1620-1667. 


GOD’S ATTRIBUTES UNCHANGEABLE 


A being is absolutely perfect when it is incapable of the 
least accession or diminution. Now such a being is God, 
and none but God. As the sun gets nothing by the shining 
of the moon and the stars, neither loseth anything by their 
eclipses or withdrawals; so the self-sufficient God gains 
nothing by all the suits and services, prayers and praises of 
His creatures; neither loseth anything by their neglect of 
their duties. He is above the influence of all our perform- 
ances.—Swinnock, 1673. 


GOD'S ATTRIBUTES LIKE HIMSELF 


His glory is as Himself, eternal, infinite, and so abides in 
itself, not capable of our addition to it or detraction from it. 
As the sun, which would shine in its own brightness and 
glory though all the world were blind, or did willfully shut 
their eyes against it, so God will ever be most glorious, let 
men be ever so obstinate or rebellious. Yea, God will have’ 
glory by reprobates, though it be nothing to their ease, and. 
though He be not glorified of them, yet He will anes Him- 

self in them.—N. Rogers, 1 SOA TOGO: 


58 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GREATNESS OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES 


It was a noble conception of the great artist of antiquity, 
who, to express the grandeur of the father of the gods, 
placed his statue, composed of ivory and gold, and crowned 
with olive, in the midst of the most sumptuous temple of 
Greece, but enthroned and sitting; and of such dimensions 
that the roof of that majestic edifice was but a little elevated 
above the summit of the image, and conveyed the striking 
intimation that this noblest structure was after all too lim- 
ited to contain the uplifted form of the divinity. To the 
vulgar eye, the magnitude of this stupendous image appeared 
as a defect, and the proportions of the general fabric seemed 
to have been forgotten. But, on a closer inspection, this 
very circumstance contributed, more than all besides, to its 
impression,—engrossing, absorbing, and overwhelming the 
spectator; not more with the richness of its materials and 
the perfection of its symmetry than by the gigantic scale 
of its greatness,—casting a new and unexpected glory upon 
the dwelling which it far outshone. But what is the dwell- 
ing we can fabricate for the. invisible and infinite God? 
Where is the house we build Him, or what is the place of 
His rest? How the very insignificance of every earthly 
sanctuary, contrasted with His infinitude, adds to the force 
of these emotions! How His immeasurable grandeur swells 
upon our thougnt when we remember that, though here His 
foot may tread, His power upholds the stars and His glory 
outshines the firmament; while the amplitude of all creation 
lies—like a pebble from the shore—within the hollow of His 
hand !—M’All. 


JUSTICE AND MERCY OF GOD 


Justice and mercy are the two arms of God, which em- 
brace, bear, and govern the whole world; they are the two 
engines of the great Archimedes, which make heaven des- 
cend upon earth, and earth mount to heaven. It is the bass 
and treble string of the great lute of Heaven which makes 
all the harmonies and tuneable symphonies of this universe. 


ee cP 


ae 


a ky 


ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 59 


Now, as Mercy is infinite, so is Justice. The Divine Essence 
holdeth these two perfections, as the two seales of the bal- 
ance, always equally poised.—N. Caussin. 


GOD’S ATTRIBUTES 


Fear God for his power, trust him for his wisdom, love 
him for his goodness, praise him for- his greatness, believe 
him for his faithfulness, and adore him for his holiness.— 
Mason. 

GOD'S POWER AND HIS ATTRIBUTES 


The power of God in its exercise is under the government 
of His wisdom, love, truth, and goodness—attributes equal 
with His power.—Selected. 


GOD INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 


GOD'S GREATNESS NO HINDRANCE TO FAITH 


Rowland Hill was once trying to convey to his hearers 
some idea of the greatness of God’s love. Suddenly he 
stopped and, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed, “I am un- 
able to reach the lofty theme. Yet I do not think that the 
smallest fish that swims in the ocean ever complains of the 


ocean’s vastness. So it is with me. With my puny powers | 


I can plunge with delight into a subject the immensity of 
which I shall never be able to comprehend.”—-F. M. Good- 
child. 


OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IMPERFECT 


We know God but as men born blind know the fire: they 
know that there is such a thing as fire, for they feel it warm 
them, but what it is they know not. So, that there is a God 
we know, but what He is we know little, and indeed we can 
never search Him out to perfection; a finite creature can 
never fully comprehend that which is infinite—Manton, 
1620-1667. 


WE KNOW LITTLE OF GOD'S GREATNESS j 


A young child, who has hitherto fancied that the rim of 
the sky rests on the earth a few miles away, and that the 
whole world lies within that circle, sails down the Forth 
there, and sees the river-banks gradually widening and the 
river passing into a frith. When he comes back, he tells 
his young companions how large the ocean is. Poor boy! 
he has not seen the ocean,—only the widened river. Just so 
with all creature-knowledge of God. Though all the arch- 
angels were to utter all they know, there would still remain 
an infinity untold—Culcross. 

60 


A ing eee a eid 


ee ee 


a 


ne Oe ee ee 


INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 61 


OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD VERY LIMITED 


God is to us, and to every creature, incomprehensible, If 
_ thou couldst fathom or measure Him, and know His great- 
ness by a comprehensive knowledge, He were not God. A 
¢reature can comprehend nothing but a creature, You may 
know God, but not comprehend Him; as your foot treadeth 
on the earth, but doth not cover all the earth. The sea is not 
the sea if you can hold it ina spoon. Thou canst not com- 
prehend the sun which thou seest, and by which thou seest 
all things else, nor the sea, nor the earth, no, nor a worm, 
nor a pile of grass: thy understanding taoweth not all that 
God hath put into any the least of these; thou art a stranger 
to thyself, and to somewhat in every part of thyself, both 
body and soul, And thinkest thou that perfectly compre- 
hendest nothing, to comprehend God? Stop then thy over- 
bold inquiries, and remember that thou art a shallow, finite 
worm, and God is infinite. First reach to comprehend the 
heaven and earth and whole creation, before thou think of 


comprehending Him, to whom the world i is nothing, or van- 


ity—Baxter, 1615-1601. 


TO COMPREHEND GOD NOT NECESSARY 


The human mind may know God, and learn of God, 
though it has no terms by which to explain Him; it may 
think of Him as Absolute, as Infinite, as Personal, while it 
may never in this life be able to fathom the full meaning of 
these sublime ideas.—George C. Lorimer. 


MAN’S IMPERFECT IDEAS OF GOD 


One day, in conversation with the Jungo-kritu, head pun- 
dit of the College of Fort William, on the subject of God, 
this man, who is truly learned in his own shastras, gave me 
from one of their books this parable :—‘“In a certain country 
there existed a village of blind men. These men had heard 
that there was an amazing animal called the elephant, but 
they knew not how to form an idea of his shape. One day 


62 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


an elephant happened to pass through the place: the villagers 
crowded to the spot where this animal was standing. One 
of them got hold of his trunk, another seized his ear, another 
his tail, another one of his legs, etc. After thus trying to 
gratify their curiosity they returned into the village, and 
sitting down together, they began to give their ideas on what 
the elephant was like: the man who had seized his trunk said 
he thought the elephant was like the body of the plantain 
tree; the man who had felt his ear said he thought he was 
like the fan with which the Hindoos clean the rice; the man 
who had felt his tail said he thought he must be like a snake ; 
and the man who had seized his leg thought he must be like 
a pillar, An old blind man of some judgment was present, 
who was greatly perplexed how to reconcile these jarring 
notions, respecting the form of the elephant; but he at length 
said, ‘You have all been to examine this animal, it is true, 
and what you report cannot be false: I suppose, therefore, 
that that which was like the plantain tree must be his 
trunk ; that which was like a fan must be his ear; that which 
was like a snake must be his tail, and that which was like 
a pillar must be his body.” In this way, the old man united 
all their notions, and made out something of the form of the 
elephant. Respecting God,” added the pundit, “we are all 
blind; none cf us has seen Him; those who wrote the shas- 
tras, like the old blind man, have collected all the reasonings 
and conjectures of mankind together, and have endeavored 
to form some idea of the nature of the Divine Being.” 

The pundit’s parable may be appropriately applied to the 
science of theology. Some Christians see one truth and 
some another, and each one is quite sure that he has beheld 
the whole. Where is the master-mind who shall gather up 
the truth out of each creed, and see the theology of the Bible 
in its completeness ?—a sublimer sight than the believers in 
the isms have yet been able to imagine.—Spurgeon. 


FALSE CONCEPTIONS OF GOD 


The beautiful rays coming from the face of God, and 
shining in such loveliness around us, are reflected and re- 


INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 63 


fracted when they come in contact with the human heart. 
Each heart is apt to receive only such as please it, and to 
reject the others; hence the many-colored aspects, some of 
them hideous in the extreme, in which God is presented to 
different nations and individuals; hence the room for each 
man fashioning a god after his own heart. An evil con- 
science, reflecting only the red rays, calls up a god who 
delights in blood; the man of fine sentiment, reflecting only 
the softer rays, paints from the hues of his own feelings a 
god of mere sensibility, tender as that of the hero of a 
modern romance; the man of glowing imagination will array 
in gorgeous but delusive coloring, and in the flowing drapery 
of majesty and grandeur; beneath which, however, there is 
little or no reality; the observer of laws will represent him 
as the embodiment of order, as blank and as black as the 
sun looks when we have gazed upon him till we are no 
- longer sensible of his brightness—McCosh. 


THE CREATOR OF ALL INCOMPREHENSIBLE 


_ If I never saw that creature which contains not some- 

thing unsearchable; nor the worm so small, which affordeth 
not matter for questions to puzzle the greatest philosopher I 
_ ever met with; no wonder, then, if mine eyes fail when I 
_ would look at God, my tongue fail me in speaking of Him, 
_ and my heart in conceiving. As long as the Athenian super- 
scription doth so too well suit with my sacrifices, “To the 
unknown God,” and while I cannot contain the smallest 
rivulet, it is little I can contain of this immense ocean. We 

_ shall never be capable of clearly knowing, till we are capable 
of fully enjoying; nay, nor till we do actually enjoy Him. 
What strange conceivings hath a man, born blind, of the sun 
and its light; or a man born deaf, of the nature of sounds 
_ and music; so do we yet want that sense by which God must 
be clearly known. I stand and look upon a heap of ants and 
see them all, with one view, very busy to little purpose. 
They know not me, my being, nature, or thoughts, though 
Iam their fellow-creature; how little, then, must we know 
of the great Creator, though He with one view continually 


64 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


beholds us all. Yet a knowledge we have, though imperfect, 
and such as must be done away. A glimpse the saints be- 
hold, though but in a glass, which makes us capable of some 
poor, general, dark apprehensions of what we shall behold in 
glory.— Baxter, 1615-16901. 


NO WAY TO COMPREHEND GOD 


What is man? It seems an easy thing to answer that 
question; yet I am not sure that, even at this day, we have 
any correct definition which, distinguishing him on the one 
hand from the angelic race, and on the other hand from the 
higher orders of inferior creatures, is at once brief and com- 
prehen ive. Now, if we have such difficulty in defining even 
ourselves, or those objects that being patent to the senses 
may be made the subject of searching and long experiment, 
is it wonderful that when we rise above his works to their 
maker, from things finite to things infinite, it should be 
found much easier to ask than to answer the question, What 
is God? The telescope by which we hold converse with the 
stars, the microscope which unveils the secrets of nature, the 
crucible of the chemist, the knife of the anatomist, the re- 
flective faculties of the philosopher, all the common instru- 
ments of science, avail not there. On the threshold of that 
impenetrable mystery a voice arrests our steps. From out 
the clouds and darkness that are round about God’s throne, 
the question comes, Who can by searching find out God, who 
can find out the Almighty to perfection :—Dr. Guthrie. 


WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND OURSELVES v 


How can man understand God, since he does not yet un- 
derstand his own mind, with which he endeavors to under- 


stand Him ?—John Ruskin. 


GOD NOT MYSTERIOUS BUT UNFATHOMABLE 


The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathom- 
able—not concealed, but incomprehensible. It is a clear in- 


INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE — 65 


finity—the darkness of the pure, unsearchable sea—John 
Ruskin, 
ANGELS CANNOT COMPREHEND GOD 


The glorified saints and holy angels, who behold as much 
of His glory as creatures can bear, do not know Him as He 
is. They are filled with His power and love. He compre- 
hends them, but they cannot Him. A vessel cast into the sea 
can but receive according to its capacity. Thus are they 
filled with His fullness till they can hold no more; but His 
glory still remains infinite and boundless. The glorious 
seraphim, therefore, are represented as hiding their faces 
with their wings, unable to bear the splendor of His pres- 
ence—Newton, 1725-1807. 


FINITE CANNOT UNDERSTAND INFINITE 


It is indeed our unhappiness in this state of weakness and 
mortality that the most advanced in knowledge and im- 
proved in piety have yet but very lame and imperfect con- 
ceptions of the great God. And the reason of it is manifest ; 
because we are forced to understand that which is infinite, 
after a finite manner. For philosophy teaches, that “itell- 
gere est pati, et pati est recipere.” And one thing receives 
another, not according to the full latitude of the object, but 
according to the scanty model of its own capacity. Tf we 
let down a vessel into the sea, we shall bring up not what 
the sea can afford, but what the vessel can hold: and just so 
it is in our own understanding of God.—South. 


BEECHER ON GODS INCOMPREHENSIBILITY 


Our knowledge of God in the present state of things, with 
all that has been done to winnow the wheat from the chaff, 
is exceedingly incomplete and unsatisfying. Our knowledge 

of the divine nature is unlike the knowledge of the qualities 
of matter which may be discerned through the use of our 
senses. God cannot be learned by any process of observa- 
tion; nor can His kingdom be studied by scientific methods. 


66 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


As is declared, “The kingdom of God cometh not with ob- 
servation.” A knowledge of the divine nature is not a thing 
to be demonstrated by scientific tests. It depends upon 
growth in us. We cannot understand in God anything of 
which we have not something in ourselves that stands for a 
suggestion, an analogue, and of which we have not had a 
parallel experience. How far can we understand God? As 
far as we ate developed in spiritual directions. How is it 
possible for us to come to any considerable understanding of 
God, who is, after all, to us but a Being somewhat greater 
than good beings whom we have known upon earth? How 
much can we convey of our nature and of our modes of gov- 
ernment to the intelligent creatures that are below us?—for 
there are creatures below us who understand many things. 
How much could we make the horse, the dog, or the ele- 
phant understand, either of our dispositions, or of the mo- 
tives from which we work, or of the structure and nature 
of our minds, or of the processes of society, or of the civil 
government which we are carrying on? You could not make 
them understand these things, because they have not the 
development, the faculty that makes the meaning plain to 
them. The beings below us cannot understand us because 
they are not sufficiently unfolded. 

And is it not so as between us and a superior Intelligence? 
There is not that in us which can understand God. Parts of 
His ways, and these the lower parts, we understand ; but the 
distance between us and the Eternal Father is greater than 
the distance between us and the more intelligent animals be- 
low us. | 

When we shall see Him as He is, not the first rude daubs 
of the incipient artist will seem so rude when the master- 
artist has found his skill, as our earliest conceptions of God 
will seem when, “in the ages to come,” we shall see Him 
as He is, no longer as through a glass darkly, no longer as 
the vision of our own imagination, no longer as the imper- 
fect work of our reason, but in all the amplitude and full- 
ness of the real Being, and when we are so developed that 
we are able to behold and still to live —Beecher. 


—— a 


INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 67 


GOD FAR GREATER THAN WE CONCEIVE 


In this world our knowedge is comparatively dim and un- 
satisfactory, but nevertheless is introductory to grander and 
more complete vision. 

This is eminently true in regard to our view of God. We 
hear so much about God that we conclude that we under- 
stand Him. He is represented as having the tenderness of a 
father, the firmness of a judge, the pomp of a king, and the 
love of a mother. We hear about Him, talk about Him, 
write about Him. We lisp His name in infancy, and it 
trembles on the tongue of the dying octogenarian. We think 
that we know very much about Him. Take the attribute of 
‘mercy, Do we understand it? The Bible blossoms all over 
with that word mercy. It speaks again and again of the 
tender mercies of God; of the sure mercies; of the great 
mercies; of the mercy that endureth for ever; of the multi- 
tude of His mercies. And yet I know that the views we 
have of this great Being are most indefinite, one-sided, and 
incomplete. When at death, the gates shall fly open, and we 
shall look directly upon Him, how new and surprising! We 
see upon canvas a picture of the morning. We study the 
cloud in the sky, the dew upon the grass, and the husband- 

‘man on the way to the field. Beautiful picture of the morn- 
ing! But we rise at daybreak, and go up on a hill, to see for 


ourselves that which was represented to us. While we look, 


the mountains are transfigured. The burnished gates of 
heaven swing open and shut, to let pass a host of fiery splen- 
dors. The clusters of purple cloud hang pendant from ar- 
bors of alabaster and amethyst. The waters make a path- 
_ way of inlaid pearl for the light to walk upon; and there is 
morning on the sea. The crags uncover their scarred visage, 
and there is morning among the mountains. Now you go 
home, and how tame your picture of the morning seems in 
contrast. Greater than that shall be the contrast between 
_ this Scriptural view of God and that which we shall have 
_ when standing face to face. This is the picture of the morn- 


ing: that will be the morning itself —Talmage. 


68 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


OUR CONCEPTIONS OF GOD ARE PALTRY 


How mean and paltry are any words of ours to convey 
any idea of him who made this mighty world out of nothing, 
and with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thou- 
sand years as one day! How weak and inadequate are our 
poor, feeble intellects to conceive of him who is perfect in 
all his works—perfect in the greatest as well as in the small- 
est; perfect in appointing the days and hours in which Ju- 
piter, with all its satellites, shall travel round the sun; per- 
fect in forming the smallest insect that creeps over a few 
feet of our little globe! How little can our busy helpless- 
ness comprehend a Being who is ever ordering all things in 
heaven and earth by universal Providence—ordering the 
rise and fall of nations and dynasties, like Nineveh and Car- 
thage; ordering the exact length to which men like Alexan- 
der, and Tamerlane, and Napoleon shall extend their con- 
quests, ordering the least step in the life of the humblest be- 
liever among his people, all at the same time, all unceasingly, 
all perfectly, all for his own glory! The blind man is no 
judge of the paintings of Rubens or Titian. The deaf man 
is insensible to the beauty of Handel’s music. The Green- 
lander can have but a faint notion of the climate of the 
tropics. The Australian savage can form but a remote con- 
ception of a locomotive engine, however well you may de- 
scribe it. There is no place in their minds to take in these 
things. They have no set of thoughts which can compre- 
hend them. They have no mental fingers which can grasp 
them. And just in the same way the best and brightest ideas 
that man can form of God, compared to the reality which 
we shall see one day, are weak and faint indeed.—Ryle. 


FATHOMLESS DEPTHS OF GOD 


“Canst thou by searching find out God?” There is an un- 


fathomable depth in all his decrees, in all his works; we can- - 


not comprehend the reason of his works, much less that of 
‘his decrees, much less that in his nature; because his wis- 
dom, being infinite as well as his power, can no more act to 


(St a 


INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE _ 69 


the highest pitch than his power. As his power is not ter- 
minated by what he hath wrought, but he could give further 
testimonies of it, so neither is his wisdom, but he could fur- 
nish us with infinite expressions and pieces of his skill. As 
in regard of his immensity he is not bounded by the limits 
of place; in regard of his eternity, not measured by the min- 
utes of time; in regard of his power, not terminated with 
this or that number of objects; so, in regard of his wisdom, 
he is not confined to this or that particular mode of work- 
ing; so that in regard of the reason of his actions as well as 
the glory and majesty of his nature, he dwells in unap- 
proachable light, I Tim. 6:16; and whatsoever we under- 
stand of his wisdom in creation and providence is infinitely 
less than what is in himself and his own unbounded nature. 
—Charnock. 


COULD UNDERSTAND HIS MOTHER'S GOD 


In 1853 Sir David Brewster was in Paris, and was taken 
to see the astronomer Arago, who was then in deep suffer- 
ing, and was soon to die. He thus describes the interview : 
“We conversed upon the marvels of creation, and the name 
of God was introduced. This led Arago to complain of the 
difficulties which his reason experienced in understanding 
God. ‘But,’ said I, ‘it is still more difficult not to compre- 
hend God. He did not deny it. ‘Only,’ added he, ‘in this 
case I abstain, for it is impossible for me to understand the 
God of you philosophers.’ ‘It is not with them we are deal- 
ing,’ replied I, ‘although I believe that true philosophy neces- 
sarily conducts us to belief in God: it is of the God of the 
Christian that I wish to speak.’ ‘Ah!’ he exclaimed, ‘he was 
the God of my mother, before whom she always experienced 
so much comfort in kneeling.’ ‘Doubtless, I answered. He 
said no more; his heart had spoken; this he had under- 
stood.’’—Foster. 


DISCOVERED HIS IGNORANCE OF GOD v 


Simonides, a heathen poet, being asked by Hiero, King 
of Syracuse, What is God? desired a day to think upon it. 


70 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


' At its end, he desired two. Thus he continued to double the 
number of days before he could give an answer. The king 
asked what he meant by this conduct. The poet replied, 
“The more I think of God, he is still the more unknown to 
me.’’—Foster. 


GOD'S GLORY COMPARED TO THE SUN 


Though the sun is the source and fountain of light, there 
is little good in gazing at the sun, except to get blinded. No 
one ever saw the better for looking the sun directly in the 
face. It is a child’s trick; grown-up people know better. 
We use the light which ine sun gives, to see by, and to 
search into all things,—the sun excepted. Him we cannot 


explore beyond what he reveals of himself in the light and 


heat which he sheds upon us, and in the colors by which 
he is reflected from the earth. There is no searching of the 
sun: our eyes are too weak. How much less can we search 
the sun’s Creator, before whom the myriads of suns are but 
as so many cloud-bodies!—J. Pulsford. 


ee Cee a a eae ey See ay) 


GOD UNCHANGEABLE, OR IMMUTABLE 


ty GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE 


Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the 
heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed 
it by an oath. That by two immutable things, in which it 
was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong con- 
solation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope 
set before us——Heb. 6:17, 18. 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and 
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning.—Jas. 1:17, 

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.— 
Heb. 13:8. 


GOD'S STRENGTH NEVER FAILS 
“Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah 


is everlasting strength.” We may depend upon Him, for 
His arm is never dried up, nor does His strength fail. 


ie There ts no wrinkle upon the brow of Eternity. God is 


where He was at first; He continues for ever a God of in- 


_ finite power, able to save those that trust in Him.—Manton, 


1620-1667. 
MAN CHANGES, NOT GOD 


Famine, pestilence, revolution, war, are judgments of the 
Ruler of the World. What sort of a Ruler, we ask, is He? 
_ The answer to that question will determine the true sense 
of the term, a judgment of God. The heathen saw Him as 
a passionate, capricious, changeable Being, who could be 
angered and appeased by men. The Jewish prophets saw 
Him as a God whose ways were equal, who was unchange- 
- able, whose decrees were perpetual, who was not to be 
__ bought off by sacrifices but pleased by righteous dealing, and 

By a 


72 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


who would remove the punishment when the causes which 


brought it on were taken away; in their own words, when | 


men repented God would repent. That does not mean that 
He changed His laws to relieve them of their suffering, but 
that they changed their relationship to His laws, so that, to 
them thus changed, God seemed to change. A boat rows 


Lapeer 


against the stream; the current punishes it. So is a nation — 
violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgment. The 
boat turns and goes with the,stream; the current assists it. 
So is a nation which has repented and put itself into har- 


mony with God’s law; it is subject to a blessing. But the 
current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has 
changed its relationship to the current. Neither does God 
change—we change; and the same law which executed itself 
in punishment now expresses itself in reward.—Broche. 


GOD’S PROMISES ARE UNCHANGEABLE 


What encouragement could there be to lift up our eyes to 
God if He were of one mind this day and of another mind 
to-morrow? Who would put up a petition to an earthly 
prince if he were so mutable as to grant a petition one day 
and deny it another, and change his own act? But if a 
prince promise this or that thing upon such or such a con- 
dition, and you know his promise to be as unchangeable as 
the laws of the Medes and Persians, would any man reason 
thus? because it is unchangeable we will not seek to him, we 
will not perform the condition upon which the fruit of the 
proclamation is to be enjoyed. Who would not count such 
an inference ridiculous? What blessings hath not God 
promised upon the condition of seeking Him?—Charnock, 
1628-1680. 


ALL THINGS CHANGE EXCEPT GOD 


All things change, creeds and philosophies, and outward 
systems—but God remains.—Mary A. Ward. 


OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD 


GOD IS ALMIGHTY 


But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this 
is impossible; but with God all things are possible-—Matt. 
19:26. 
_ . Ah, Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the 

earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there 

1s nothing too hard for thee.—Jer. 32:17. 
_ The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.—Rev. 19 :6. 

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- 


ward who believe according to the working of his mighty 


power? 
i Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from 
_ the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly 


| -places——Eph. 1 :19, 20. 


_ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly 
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that 
worketh in us.—Eph. 3 :20. 


GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE IN CREATION 


_ It is impossible for the mind which is not totally destitute 
of piety to behold the sublime, the awful, the amazing works 
of creation and providence—the heavens with their lumi- 
 naries, the mountains, the ocean, the storm, the earthquake, 
_ the volcano, the circuit of the seasons, and the revolutions of 
~~ empires—without marking in them all the mighty hand of 
_ God, and feeling strong emotions of reverence toward the 
_ Author of these stupendous works——Timothy Dwight. 


GOD AN OMNIPOTENT KING 


Oh, when His wisdom can mistake, 
His might decay, His love forsake, 


73 


4 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Then may His children cease to sing,— 
“The Lord omnipotent is King!” 
—Conder. 


GOD ABLE TO SUPPLY EVERY NEED 


It is as easy for God to supply thy greatest as thy smallest 
wants, even as it was within His power to form a system or 
an atom, to create a blazing sun as to kindle the fire-fly’s 
lamp.—Thomas Guthrie. 


GOD AN OMNIPOTENT WORKMAN 


What an immense workman is God in miniature as well 
as in the great! With the one hand, perhaps, he is making a 
ring of one hundred thousand miles in diameter, to revolve 
round a planet like Saturn, and with the other is forming a 
tooth in the ray of the feather of a humming bird, or a 
point in the claw of the foot of a microscopic insect. When 
he works in miniature, everything is gilded, polished and 
perfect; but whatever is made by human art, as a needle, 
etc., when viewed by a microscope appears rough, and 
coarse, and bungling.—Bishop Law. 


OMNIPOTENCE SHOWN IN ALL GOD'S WORKS 


The same Being that fashioned the insect, whose existence 
is only discerned by a microscope, and gave that invisible 
speck a system of ducts and other organs to perform its 
vital functions, created the enormous mass of the planet 
thirteen hundred times larger than our earth, and launched 
it in its course round the sun, and the comet, wheeling with 
a velocity that would carry it round our globe in less than 
two minutes of time, and yet revolving through so prodi- 
gious a space that it takes near six centuries to encircle the 
sun!—Lord Brougham. 


RICHTER’S AWE-INSPIRING APOLOG 


An angel once caught up a man into infinite space, and 
moved with him from galaxy to galaxy, until the human 


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OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD 15 


- heart fainted, and called out, “End is there none of the uni- 
verse of God?” And the constellations answered, “End is 
there none that we ever heard of.” Again the angel flew on 
with the man past immeasurable architraves and immensity 
after immensity sown with the rushing worlds; and the 
_ human heart fainted again, and cried out, “End is there none 
of the universe of God?’ And the angel answered, “End 
is there none of the universe of God; Io! also is there no be- 
ginning !” 


OMNIPOTENT TRANQUILLITY IN GOD’S WORK 


The Divine work, because it is such work, is rest—tranquil 
in its energy, quiet in its intensity; because so mighty, there- 
fore so still—Selected. 


_ RESTING IN GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE 


There is nothing left to us but to see how we may be ap- 
- proved of Him, and how we may roll the weight of our weak 
souls in well-doing upon Him, who is God omnipotent.— 
Rutherford. 


GOD MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL ELSE * 


__ When Antigonus was ready to engage in a sea-fight with 

_Ptolemy’s armada, and the pilot cried out, “How many are 
_ they more than we?” the courageous king replied, “’Tis 
_ true, if you count their numbers, they surpass us; but for 
_ how many do you value me?” Our God is sufficient against 
all the combined forces of earth and hell—Spencer. 


‘ i 


GOD'S POWER NOT LIKE KING CANUTE’S © 


_ King Canute, a Danish conqueror of Britain, was one day 
_ flattered by his courtiers on account of his power. Then he 
ordered his throne to be placed by the seaside. -The tide 
- was rolling in, and threatened to drown him. He com- 
_ manded the waves to stop. Of course, they did not. Then 
_ he said to his flatterers, “Behold, how small is the might of 
kings !’”—Foster. | 


716 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


2 


GOD’S ANSWER TO MAN’S DEFIANICE 


Chaplain McCabe tells that, in a Dakota town, a follower 
of Colonel Ingersoll said he would build a barn that “God 
Almighty couldn’t blow down.” So he erected a solid struc- 
ture entirely of stone; and then the first cyclone that came 
along doubled that barn about as a giant would a baby, not 
leaving one stone on another. Since then the man has been 
more modest in his asseverations——Rev. E. S. Lorenz. 


HAD FORGOTTEN GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE 


One of the early Christians was much perplexed over the 
passage which represents the earth as founded upon the 
waters. Then he thought upon the omnipotence of God, 
and said, “I forgot God when I said, How can this be?” 
Many doubts are silenced in the same way. The power of 
God makes the yielding waters firm as adamant, or the airy 
nothing, upon which he is said to hang the world, stronger 
than pillars of brass.—Foster. 


GOD'S POWER OVER THE UNIVERSE 


The power which gave existence is power which can 
know no limits. But to all beings, in heaven, and earth, and 
hell, he gave existence, and is therefore seen to possess pow- 
ers which transcend every bound. The power which up- 
holds, moves, and rules the universe is also clearly illimit- 
able. The power which is necessary to move a single world 
transcends all finite understanding. No definite number of 
finite beings possess sufficient power to move a single world 
a hair’s breadth; yet God moves the great world which we 
inhabit sixty-eight thousand miles in an hour; two hundred 
and sixty times faster than the swiftest motion of a cannon 
ball. Nor does he move this world only, but the whole sys- 
tem, of which it is a part; and all the worlds which replen- 
ish the immense stellary system, formed of suns innumer- 
able, and of the planets which surround them. All these 
he has also moved from the beginning to the present mo- 
ment; and yet “He fainteth not, neither is weary !”—Dr. 
Dwight. 


OMNISCIENCE OF GOD 


GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS 


Known unto God are all his works from the beginning 
of the world.—Acts 15:18. 

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his 
sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of 


him with whom we have to do— Heb. 4:13. 


_ The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the 
evil and the good.—Prov. 15:3. 

) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our 
heart, and knoweth all things—I John 3:20. 

~ O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou 
knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou under- 
 standest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path 
and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 
_ For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou 
 knowest it altogether.—Psa. 139:1-4. 


GOD KNOWS BEST 


™ 
By Marian N. Clark 


God knows best what is best for me. 
Why should I worry—or anxious be, 
Trying to fathom the course I take, 
Grasping at bubbles that fade,and break? 
One step is all I have need to see. 

God knows best what is best for me. 


God knows best what is best for me 
All through time and eternity. 
In my Father’s house is goodly store 
Of all I can ever need—and more. 

oe hate 


78 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


With Him I rest, for I know that He 
Always gives what is best for me. 
—Sunday School Times. 


ALL KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM GOD 


What must be the knowledge of him, from whom all 
created minds have derived both their power of knowing, 
and the innumerable objects of their knowledge! What 
must be the wisdom of him, from whom all beings derive 
their wisdom; from whom the emmet, the bee, and the stork 
receive the skill to provide, without an error, their food, 
habitation, and safety; and the prophet and the seraph im- 
bibe their exalted views of the innumerable, vast, and sub- 
lime wonders of creation, and of creating glory and great- 
ness!—Dr. Dwight. 


GOD'S OMNISCIENCE SHOWN IN HIS WORKS 


He who cannot see the workings of a Divine wisdom in 


the order of the heavens, the change of the seasons, the 
flowing of the tides, the operations of the wind and other 
elements, the structure of the human body, the circulation 
of the blood through a variety of vessels wonderfully ar- 
ranged and conducted, the instinct of beasts, their tempers 
and dispositions, the growth of plants, and their many ef- 
fects for meat and medicine; he who cannot see all these 
and many other things as the evident contrivance of a Di- 
vine wisdom is sottishly blind, and unworthy the name of 
man.—William Jones of Nayland. 


GOD’S WISDOM INFINITE 


The wisdom of the Lord is infinite as are also His glory 
and His power. Ye heavens, sing His praises; sun, moon, 
and planets, glorify Him in your ineffable language! Praise 
Him, celestial harmonies, and all ye who can comprehend 
them! And thou, my soul, praise thy Creator! It is by 
Him and in Him that all exist—Kepler. 


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TRUST THE WISDOM OF GOD 


He knoweth all; the end 
Is clear as the bestaning to His eye; 
Then wait in peace, secure though storms toll by, 
He knoweth all, O friend! 
—Sunday-School Times. 


GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING 


There is not a city, there is not a village, not a house, on 


_ which the eye of God is not fixed. He notices the actions, 


words and thoughts of every member of every family, in 


this and in every place. He observes every family in which 
no prayer is offered, and marks that as a house on which his 
blessing cannot rest. If they acknowledge not God, neither 
can God acknowledge them as his; for “them that honor 


me,” saith God, “I will honor; and they that despise me shall 
be lightly esteemed.” He sees the knavery and dishonesty 


which are practiced in some houses, and which the inhabi- 
tants of the houses think to shut in with the walls which en- 
close them. He notices the vain and unprofitable conversa- 
_ tion of many who forget that for “every idle word that men 
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of 
— judgment ; 
_ indulged in privacy, by some who would blush to think that 
their imaginations were exposed to any human eye. He 
_ knows all the hypocrisy which sometimes lurks. under fair 


eee 


and the wicked thoughts and desires which are 


words and specious performances. He knows and observes 


all and forgets nothing. He records all in his book of re- 


membrance. Let the consideration that all things are naked 
and opened tnto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, 
have its proper influence upon us.—Preston. 


GOD’S KNOWLEDGE A CHECK TO SIN ” 


The omniscience of God is a great check to sin and mo- 


: tive to virtue. A heathen philosopher advised his pupils to 
_ Imagine that some distinguished character was always look- | 
ing at them, as the best aid to excellence of life-—Foster. 


80 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF US PERFECT 


Let us ask ourselves seriously and honestly, “What do I 
believe after all? What manner of man am I after all? 
What sort of show would I make after all, if the people 
around me knew my heart and all my secret thoughts?’ 
What sort of show then do I already make in the sight of 
Almighty God, who sees every man exactly as he is?— 
Charles Kingsley. 


GOD MERCIFUL AS WELL AS OMNISCIENT 


Take comfort, and recollect however little you and I may 
know, God knows; He knows Himself and you and me and 
all things; and His mercy is over all His works.—Charles 
Kingsley. 


GOD'S WILL NOT ONLY GOOD, BUT BEST 


It is certain that this is not only good which the Al 
mighty has done, but that it is best; He hath reckoned all 
your steps to heaven.—Rutherford. 


“COD SEES BENEATH THE SURFACE 


There is a recent application of electricity by which, un- 
der the influence of its powerful light, the body can be illum- 
inated so that the workings beneath the surface of the skin 


can be seen. Lift up the hand, and it will appear almost — 


translucent, the bones and veins clearly appearing. It is so 
in some sort with God’s introspection of the human heart. 
His eye, which shines brighter than the sun, searches us and 
discovers all our weakness and infirmity.—Pilkington, 


THINK OFTEN OF GOD'S OMNISCIENCE 


We cannot too often think that there is a never sleeping 
eye that reads the heart, and registers aur thoughts—Bacon. 


—— a 


OMNISCIENCE OF GOD 81 


GOD'S KNOWLEDGE INCLUDES EVERYTHING 


God nothing does nor suffers to be done 

But thou wouldst do thyself if thou couldst see. 

The end of all things here as well as He. 
—Selected. 


NO CLOUD ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE 


However dark our lot may be, there is light enough on the 
other side of the cloud, in that pure empyrean where God 
- dwells, to irradiate every darkness of this world; light 
enough to clear every difficult question, remove every 
ground of obscurity, conquer every atheistic suspicion, 
silence every hard judgment, light enough to satisfy, nay, to 
ravish the mind forever——Horace Bushnell. 


GOD’S EYE SEES EVERYTHING 


God looks to the bottom and spring of actions; not only 


the matter but the principle. A man that stands by a river 


in.a low place can only see that part of the river that 
passes by; but he that is aloof in the air, in a higher place, 
-may see the whole course, where it rises and how it runs. 
So God at one view sees the beginning, rise, and ending of 
actions; whatever we think, speak, or do, He sees it alto- 
- gether. He knows our thoughts before we can think them, 


“Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising; Thou 


understandest my thoughts afar off.’ Before we can con- 
clude anything, a gardener knows what roots are in the 
ground long before they appear, and what fruits they will 
-produce.—Manton, 1620-1667. 


GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE EXPLAINED 


God’s prescience, from all eternity, being but the seeing 
everything that ever exists as it is, contingents as contin- 
gents, necessary as necessary, can neither work any change 
in the object by thus seeing it, nor itself be deceived in 
_ what it sees Hammond, 1605-1666. 


82 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH MAN’S 
FREE AGENCY “ 


Foreknowledge is not the cause of the things that are 
foreknown ; but because the thing is future and shall be, that 
is the reason why it is foreknown; for it doth not, because 
it was known, come to pass, but because it was to come to 
pass, therefore it was foreknown; and bare knowledge is 
no more the cause of any event, which because it is known 
must infallibly be, than my seeing a man run is the cause 
of his running, which, because I do see, is infallibly so— 
Tillotson, 1630-1694. 


NO SIN HIDDEN FROM GOD 


God’s omniscience should indeed make us ashamed to 
commit sin: but it should embolden us to confess it. We 
can tell our secrets to a friend that does not know them; 
how much more should we do it to Him that knows them 
already! God’s knowledge outruns our confessions, and 
anticipates what we have to say. As our Savior speaks 
concerning prayer, “Your heavenly Father knows what you 
have need of before you ask;” so I may say of confession, 
your heavenly Father knows what secret sins you have com- 
mitted before you confess. But still He commands this duty 
of us; and that not to know our sins, but to see our inge- 
nuity. Adam, when he hid himself, to the impiety of his sin, 
added the absurdity of a concealment. Our declaring of 


our sins to God, who knows them without being beholden to’ 


our relation; it is like opening a window to receive the light, 
which would shine in through it howsoever. Every man has 
a casement in his bosom, through which God looks in upon 
him every day. When a master sees his servant commit a 
fault in secret, and thereupon urges him to a confession, he 
does it not so much to know the fault as to try the man. 
Now there is no duty by which we give God the glory of 
His omniscience so much as by a free confession of our 
secret iniquities. Joshua says to Achan, ‘My son, give, I 
pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make con- 
fession unto Him.’’—South, 1633-1716. 


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OMNISCIENCE OF GOD 83 


LIVING IN SIGHT OF GOD 


Julius Drusus, a Roman tribune, had a house that in many 
places lay exposed to the view of the neighborhood. A per- 
son came and offered that for five talents he would so alter 
it that it should not be liable to that inconvenience. “I will 


_ give thee ten talents,” said Drusus, ‘Gf thou canst make my 


house conspicuous in every room of it, that so all the city 
may behold in what manner I lead my life.” It would be 
well for us to recollect that we are all thus continually ex- 
posed to the eye of God—Whitecross. 


DID NOT LIKE AN ALL-SEEING GOD 


Some of the natives of South America, after listening a 
while to the instructions of the Catholic missionaries, gave 
them this cool answer: “You say that the God of the 
Christians knows every thing, that nothing is hidden from 


| him, that he is everywhere, and sees all that is done below. 


Now, we do not desire a God so sharpsighted ; we choose to 


_ live with freedom in our woods, without having a perpetual 
observer of our actions over our heads.’’—Arvine. 


GOD THE SOURCE OF ALL WISDOM 
God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures, and 
therefore is infinitely wise in Himself. As He hath a full- 
ness of being in Himself, because the streams of being are 


i derived to other things from Him, so He hath a fullness of 


wisdom because He is the spring of wisdom to angels and 
men. That Being must be infinitely wise from whence all 
other wisdom derives its original; for nothing can be in the 


effect which is not eminently in the cause; the cause is al- 


ways more perfect than the effect. If, therefore, the crea- 
tures are wise, the Creator must be much more wise.—Char- 


GOD'S WISDOM NOT ALL REVEALED 


If the mind of God as discovered to us in His Word and 
works is so vast and deep, what must His mind be in all its 
undisclosed resources—in the infinity and eternity of its 


existence ?—John. Bate. 


us 


OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 


GOD IS EVERYWHERE 


Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from thy presence? if I ascend into heaven, thou art 
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there; if I 
_ take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost 

- parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy 
\ right hand shall hold me.—Ps. 139:7-10. 

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see 
him? saith the Lord.—Jer. 23 :24. 

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the 
evil and the good.—Prov. 15:3. 

Do not J fll heaven and earth? saith the Lord.—Jer. 23: 
23,24. 

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the 
heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how 
much less this house that I have builded!—I Kings 8:27. 


That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel 


after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one 
of us.—Acts 17:27. 


COMFORT OF OMNIPRESEN CE 


“ Ever with Thee, Almighty Love, through all the weary 
night— 

A joy above all other joy, a light above all light; 

And all the day, where’er I stray, on path bestrewn with 
flowers, 

Or dight in winter’s drapery of snow, and sleet, and 
showers. 


Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! I lean upon the breast 
On which the universe of stars, with all their being, rest; 


84 


OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 85 


_ That cares for many a thousand worlds, yet ever cares for 


me, 
And guides my way, by night and day, where’er my wander- 
ings be. 


Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! Thy Son, the King of 
Kings, 


To me the message of Thy love, writ in His heart’s blood, 


brings ; 
And when the blasts that shake the base of earthly hopes 
o’ertake me, 
He gently whispers in my ear, “I never will forsake thee.” 


Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! When lying in the dust, 
’ll gather all Thy Promises, and lean on them my trust; 


Then rise refreshed, and journey on, assured the end will be 
A home in heaven for evermore, Almighty Love, with Thee! 
—George Paulin. 


GOD’S POWER EVERYWHERE PRESENT 


God is everywhere present by His power. He rolls the 
orbs of heaven with His hand; He fixes the earth with His 
foot; He guides ail creatures with His eye, and refreshes 
them with His influence; He makes the powers of hell to 
shake with His terrors, and binds the devils with His word. 


: _—Jeremy Taylor. 


GOD’S GOODNESS AND MERCY EVERYWHERE 


There are regions beyond the most nebulous outskirts of 
matter; but no regions beyond the Divine goodness. We 
may conceive of tracts where there are no worlds, but not 
of any where there is no God of mercy.—J. W. Alexander. 


HEBREW IDEA OF GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE 


To the Hebrews, the external universe is just a black 


screen concealing God. All things are full of, yet all dis- 


86 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


tinct from, him. The cloud on the mountain is his cover- 

ing; the muttering from the chambers of the thunder is his 
voice; that sound on the top of the mulberry-trees is his 
“going ;’” in that wind, which bends the forest or curls the 
clouds, he is walking; that sun is his still commanding eye. 
Whither can they go from his spirit? whither can they flee 
from his presence? At every step and in every circum- 
stance, they feel themselves God-enclosed, God-filled, God- 
breathing men, with a spiritual presence lowering or smil- 
ing on them from the sky, sounding in wild tempest, or 
creeping in panic stillness across the surface of the earth; 
and, if they turn within, lo! it is there also,—an “eye” hung 
in the central darkness of their own hearts. Hence the 
Muse of the Hebrew bard is not Dame Memory, nor any of 
her siren daughters, but the almighty, all-pervading Spirit 
himself, who is at once the subject, the auditor, and the in- 
spirer, of the song.—Gilfillan. | 


GOD AN EVER-PRESENT FRIEND 


It is impossible to conceive of any thought more appalling 
than this would be, did this unseen and ever-present Being 
regard us with unfriendly feelings. . . . And it is difficult 
to conceive of.all the agony which would accrue to us from 
the consciousness that an enemy, unseen by us, attended 
all our steps; that his eye was upon us by night and by 
day; that in solitude or in the crowd—in our places of 
business—at home or in the street, he never left us. His 
invisibility would render us unable to defend ourselves 
from his assaults, were we otherwise capable of doing so; 
and leaving us ignorant of his intentions and movements, 
would keep us in a state of torturing suspense, ever fear- 
ing, and not knowing how soon he might gratify his en- 
mity by involving us in ruin. And did we know, more- 
over, that, owing to his great power, we were completely 
at his mercy, and that his will would suffice to inflict 
upon us the most excruciating tortures—oh! then the 
thought would be so fraught with horror as to occasion a 
very hell on earth—a hell from which even the bottomless 


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Spates a ecee: 


- OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 87 


abyss, or the blackness of darkness, would prove a welcome 
refuge ; nor would it be surprising if some, by a suicidal act, 
attempted to obtain relief from the intolerable thought. 
And what cause for gratitude have we that a thought 
which might be so fraught with horror may prove to all of 
us the source of unfailing consolation! The character of 
God is such that the man is sadly wrong who derives no 
comfort from the consciousness of His presence.—Landels. 


GOD'S PRESENCE LIKE THE AIR 


As birds, wheresoever they fly, always meet with the air; 
so we, wheresoever we go, or wherever we are, always find 
God present.—Sales. 


WHY GOD'S PRESENCE IS NOT MORE MANIFEST 


What can be so awful as to know that there is never any 
moment at which what we do is not entirely naked and ex- 
posed to the sight of God, just as surely as though we were 
in the noon-day light, before an assembled universe? Those 
who, upon occasions of ceremony, are in the presence of 
an earthly monarch, have an incessant feeling of constraint, 
an oppressive sense that certain forms of respectful eti- 
quette must every moment be kept up. How infinitely 
would the feeling of constraint, the sense of subjection to 
another’s will, be increased, if we could realize in a similar 
degree the tremendous presence of the King of Kings, who 
is, in truth, never absent from us for a single instant, who 
not only sees everything which we do, but even reads the 
most secret thoughts and desires of our hearts! The marvel 
is, that we can live on in the enjoyment of the pleasures of 
life, and in the pursuit of our lusts and appetites, just as 
though no God existed. This, melancholy as are some of its 
results, I take to be one of the most remarkable of the many 
proofs which are to be found of the wisdom and mercy of 
our Creator. We are able to appreciate the continual pres- 
ence of God as a pure act of abstract reason, just as we are 
_ able to know that space must be infinite, and that there must 


88 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


be a never-ending eternity; but we cannot realize any of 
these truths as hard, tangible facts, in the same way that 
we realize, by their contact with our senses, the existence of 
the material objects of the world around us—the trees and 
rivers we admire, the food we eat, the friends we love. 
That we cannot in this substantial, matter-of-fact way, feel 
the continual presence of God, is, I say, a merciful and lov- 
ing provision of our Maker. For it is clear that if we could 
do so, our whole moral nature would be, as it were, turned 
upside down. To begin with, we should cease to be free 
moral agents, As it is impossible that a man, trembling on 
the edge of a precipice or threatened with instant death by 
shipwreck, could indulge in any besetting sin, so it would 
be equally impossible that he could do so when oppressed 
with the conscious presence of that awful Being who can 
at a breath consign him to any fate. But all pleasure would 
cease too. The foundation of all our enjoyment consists in 
the absence of restraint, and the consciousness of power 
and freedom to do and think according to the desire of the 
passing moment. A man may have his pride gratified by 
being admitted to a ceremonial interview with his sovereign 
upon some state occasion; but it is with a sense of relief that 
he escapes from the kingly presence, and gets back to the 
free atmosphere of everyday existence. There could be no 
enjoyment of life were we under the restraint which would 
be necessarily incidental to our being imbued with a contin- 
ual consciousness of the presence of the Almighty Maker of 
all things. God is therefore like an august and wise monarch, 
who does not often burden His subjects by calling them into 
His presence, or, if He does so, dispenses with His scepter 
and his robes, and meets them genially with condescending 
friendship. By the wise and holy man the presence of his 
Almighty King is always felt and known, even when it is not 
actually perceived. He ever remembers that the Monarch 1s 
in His palace to rule and govern and direct, even when there 
is no outward pageant, no noisy manifestation of external 
power. Thus the presence of God becomes a settled and 
abiding thing, but rather as a sweet and soothing influence 
than a hard, tangible fact. On the other hand, the ungodly 


OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 89 


man can for a time, so to speak, cast out God’s presence. 
He strives to forget it altogether, and for the most part he 
is successful. He goes on in his own sinful, selfish way, liv- 
ing outside God’s presence, until the day arrives when that 
presence can no longer be evaded, and it comes with all the 
terrors of eternal judgment. God has left abundant witness 
to His existence in the infinite wisdom and goodness which 
we see manifested everywhere throughout the world. But 
in this life His presence coerces no man. We can live with 
or without God, as we choose.—Hooper. 


OMNIPRESENCE TRANSCENDS HUMAN THOUGHT 


God is behind all space. What a solemn mystery there is 
in this idea of space! Modern science has added to the 
benefits which it has conferred upon us, this also, that it has 
enlarged our conceptions of space. How much more worth- 
ily we are enabled to think of the universe and empire of 
God than those could have done, who regarded the firma- 
ment as a solid shell of the earth, star-gemmed, fixed a few 
miles above it, and revolving around it for the purpose of al- 
ternating day and night! One of the most conspicuous re- 
spects in which astronomy has proved herself the handmaid 
of devotion, has been by revealing to us in part the scale on 
which the universe is built. What heights and depths of 
space the telescopes of Rosse and Herschel have enabled us 
to penetrate! What awe seizes upon the soul, as viewed 
through their powerful lenses the faint nebule resolve them- 
selves into clusters of shining worlds, and through the 


_ spaces between these worlds, across immeasurable and in- 


conceivable distances, other nebule burst upon the aston- 
ished vision! as all these countless suns and systems are de- 
tected to be revolving around the brightest of the Pleiades! 
Is that to us faint star the center of the universe? Is it 
there that God sits enthroned? Is that the one stable and 
unmoving orb? Or is that moving too, carrying the innum- 
erable suns and worlds that are linked on to it around some 
_ vaster center? Where is the center of the universe? Where 
- is its circumference? How far must we travel before we 


90 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


reach a margin beyond which space does not extend? Is 
there such a margin? But though we had reached the last 
world that revolves around the great unknown center, we 
should not have come.upon a tenantless void; we should still 
be in the presence of God, in the hollow of whose hand all 
worlds and suns and systems lie. “Whither, O Lord, shall I 
go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy pres- 
ence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make 
my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings 
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall 
hold me.”—R. A. Bertram. 


A SKEPTIC’S OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 


A certain man went to a dervis, and proposed three ques- 
tions: “First, Why do they say that God is omnipresent? 
I do not see him in any place: show me where he is.- Sec- 


ondly, Why is man punished for his crimes, since whatever: 


he does proceeds from God? Man has no free will, for he 
cannot do anything contrary to the will of God; and, if he 
had power, he would do everything for his own good. 
Thirdly, How can God punish Satan in hell-fire, since he is 
formed of that element? and what impression can fire make 
on itself?” The dervis took up a large clod of earth, and 
struck him on the head with it. The man went to the cadi, 
and said, “I proposed three gestions to a dervis, who flung 
such a clod of earth at me as has made my head ache.” The 
cadi, having sent for the dervis, asked, “Why did you throw 
a clod of earth at his head, instead of answering his ques- 
tions?” The dervis replied, “The clod of earth was an an- 
swer to his speech. He says he has a pain in his head: let 
him show me the pain, and I will make God visible to him. 
And why does he exhibit a complaint to you against me? 
Whatever I did was the act of God. I did not strike him 
without the will of God, and what power do I possess? And, 
as he is compounded of earth, how can he suffer pain from 
that element?” The man was confounded, and the cadi 
highly pleased, with the dervis’s answer.—J. H. Vincent. 


7 ‘e 
‘ri 


Sine In pps RE TTR SS Se le ee 


OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 91 


GOD’S OMNIPRESENCE SYMBOLIZED 


Among the Jews, the wave-offering was waved horizon- 
tally to the four points, and the heave-offering heaved up 
and down, to signify that he was Lord of heaven and earth. 
—Bowes. 


WHERE IS GOD NOT? 


A heathern philosopher once asked a Christian, “Where 
is God?” The Christian answered, “Let me first ask you, 
Where is he not ?’—Arrowsmith. 


GOD FILLS HEAVEN AND EARTH 


A little boy being asked, “How many gods are there Pree 
plied, “One.” —“How do you know that 2?”—‘‘Because,” said 
the boy, “there is only room for one; for he fills heaven and 
earth.”—Foster. 


WHERE GOD IS 


A teacher asked, “Where is God?” One boy replied, in 
heaven;” another, “Everywhere,” and another, “God 1s 
here.” —Foster. 


GODS PRESENCE A MORAL RESTRAINT 


Would men speak so vainly if they considered God over- 
heard them? Latimer took heed to every word in his exam- 
ination when he heard the pen go behind the hangings: so, 
what care would persons have of their words if they re- 


-- membered God heard and the pen is going in heaven?— 


Watson, 1600. 


GOD IS NOWHERE- 


“God is nowhere,” was the fool’s motto which an infidel 
lawyer nailed up in his office. One day his little daughter 
spelled out the words, but made a mistake in dividing the 
letters, “God-is-now-here.’’ Her father corrected her, but 
she soon read it wrong again. The trifling circumstance im- 


92 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


pressed the man so much that he finally abandoned his in- , 
fidelity, and became a worshiper of the ever-present God.— 
Rev. E. 5. Lorenz. 


2 


MACLONALD A PART OF GOD'S ALLNESS_ 


Thou art the only One, the All in all; 

Yet when my soul on Thee doth call 

And Thou dost answer out of everywhere, 
I in Thy allness have my perfect share. 


JOY IN GOD'S PRESENCE 


I believe that into the weakest, saddest heart that opens to 
receive this Divine Guest, the Father and the Son will come 
and abide; and the exalted joy that abiding brings what 
words can express! The Divine dwelling in the human, 
the Infinite in the finite, how marvelous! how glorious! 
This must be the real foretaste of heavenly joy—the truest 
heaven we can know on earth.—A. H. K. 


WHY MEN LOVE LOCAL GODS 


When spiders stretched their webs across the eyelids of 
Jupiter, notwithstanding all the efforts that Greek sculpture 
had put forth to make the image awful, the human wor- 
shiper would hide, without scruple, in his heart, the 
thoughts which he did not wish his deity to know. It was 
even an express tenet of the heathen superstitions that the 
authority of the gods was partial and local. One who was 
dreadful on the hills might be safely despised in the valleys. 
In this feature, as in all others, the popish idolatry, imita- 
tive rather than inventive, follows the rut in which the 
ancient current ran. A god or a saint that should really 
cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the 
worshiper would not long be held in repute. The grass 
would grow again round that idol’s shrine. A seeing god 
would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first 
cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape 


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OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 93 


from.the look of the living God, and none but a dead image . 
would serve the turn——Arnot. 


LIFE A VISION OF GOD’S PRESENICE 


Life should be a constant vision of God’s presence. Here 
is our defense against being led away by the gauds and 
shows of earth’s vulgar attractions—Alexander Maclaren. 


WHY GOD'S PRESENCE IS NOT ALWAYS MANIFEST 


I know that as night and shadows are good for flowers, 
and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun, so 
is Christ’s absence of special use, and that it hath some 
nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to humility, and 
putteth an edge on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field for 
faith to put forth itself—Rutherford. 


NEED OF GOD’S PRESENCE ?” 


I need Thy presence every passing hour; 
What, but Thy grace, can foil the tempter’s power? 
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be? 
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me! 

—H., F. Lyte. 


CALMNESS IN GOD'S PRESENCE 
A consistent Christian may not have rapture; he has that 


which is much better than rapture—calmness—God’s serene 
and perpetual presence——F’. W. Robertson. 


THE INDWELLING OF GoD 

We may search long to find where God is, but we shall 
find Him in those who keep the words of Christ. For the 
Lord Christ saith, “If any: man love me, he will keep my 
words; and we will make our abode with him.”’—Martin 
Luther. 

SPAR THE SOUL DEAD WITHOUT GOD 

As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of 
the soul. As therefore the body perishes when the soul 


94 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


leaves it, so the soul dies when God departs from it.—St. 
Augustine. | 


INSPIRATION OF GOD’S PRESEN'CE 


Do we vividly feel that He is near us as our everlasting 
Friend, to guide, cheer, and bless our aspirations and our 
efforts? And in this confidence do we watch, pray, strive, 
press forward, and seek resolutely for ourselves and fel- 
low-beings the highest end of existence, even the perfection 
of our immortal souls?—W. E. Channing. 


GOD LIKE THE GREAT OCEAN 
The never-ceasing boom of the great ocean, as it breaks on 
the beach, drowns all smaller sounds——Alexander Maclaren. 
ENJOYING THE PRESENCE OF GOD 


He who knows what it is to enjoy God will dread His 
loss; he who has seen His face will fear to see His back.— 
Richard Alleine. 


REST FOUND IN GOD'S PRESENCE 
The presence of God calms the soul, and gives it quiet 
and repose.—Fenelon. 
NO PLACE WHERE GOD IS NOT 


A little child six years of age, being introduced into 
company, was asked by a clergyman where God was, 
with the offer of an orange. “Tell me,” replied the boy, 
“where He is not, and I will give you two.” 


GOD ON THE OCEAN AS ON: THE LAND 


Isn’t God upon the ocean 
Just the same as on the land? 
—James T. Field, in the Tempest. 


tie iti 


SA ig at aA IE FRE 


~ SSS 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 


ARCHBISHOP RYAN ON THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


I was witness to a remarkable scene. . . . I saw, in their 
various religious costumes, representatives of all religions 


on earth. . . . The cardinal opened the congress with pray- 


er. It was at once a prayer and a profession of faith—a 
universal faith in God. Not a man of all those various 
religions of the whole world, of every tribe and tongue and 
people, who did not cry out to God with him: “Our Father 
_ who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom 

come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Not 
a man who did not feel his dependence on God’s providence 
for his daily food, hence all prayed as with one voice: 
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Not a man who had 
‘not sinned and been sinned against, and hence the chorus: 
_ “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass 


against us.” Not a man who did not feel that while he lived 


he was in danger of sin and its consequent punishment, and 
_ hence the closing petition: “Lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil. Amen.”’—Address on Agnosticism and 
its Causes, in Academy of Music, Philadelphia, December 


| 12, 1894. 


H. M. FIELD AT THE RELIGIOUS PARLIAMENT 


It has been my fortune to travel in many lands, and I 
_ have not been in any part of the world so dark but that I 
have found some rays of light, some proofs that the God 
who is our Father has been there, and that the temples 
which are reared in many religions resound with sincere 
worship to Him. I have found that “God has not left 
Himself without witness” in any of the dark climes or 
_ religions of this world. 


95 


96 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


POPE’S UNIVERSAL PRAYER 


Father of all, in every age, 
In every clime adored 

By saint, by savage, and by sage, 
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord; 

Thou First Great Cause, least understood, 
Who all my sense confined 

To know but this: that Thou art good, 
And I, myself, am blind, etc. 


GOD’S SIGNATURE ON ALL HEARTS 


God has stamped His indelible signature upon all human 
hearts, which no degradation can efface.... It would 
seem that every human soul is more or less “aflame with 
God.” As these truths come to us they are therefore com- 
mon property, “floating ideas,” “elder truths,’ in Adam’s 
heart and in all men’s hearts; handed on from hand to hand 
through migrations, explorations and otherwise; unifying 
us with all past saints and sages, and with God; most likely 
they are the voice of God resounding through the ages.— 
Townsend, in “The God Man.” ‘ 


ALL PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGED GOD 


Kircher lays it down as a certain principle, that there 
never was any people so rude which did not acknowledge 
and worship one supreme Deity.—Stillingfleet. 


CICERO’S TESTIMONY 


There is no people so wild and savage as not to have be- | 


lieved in a God, though they have been unacquainted with 
His nature.—Cicero. 


ALL NATIONS BELIEVED IN GOD 


Amid all the war and contest and variety of human 
opinion, you will find one consenting conviction in every 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 97 


land, that there is one God, the king and father of all— 
Maximus Tyrius. 


SOURCES OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 


But what has been often urged as a consideration of 
much more weight, is not only the opinion of the better sort, 
but the general consent of mankind to this great truth; 
which I think could not possibly have come to pass, but 
from one of the three following reasons: either that the 
idea of a God is innate and co-existent with the mind itself; 
or that this truth is so very obvious that it is discovered by 
the first exertion of reason in persons of the most ordinary 
capacities; or, lastly, that it has been delivered down to us 
_ through all ages by a tradition from the first man. The 
atheists are equally confounded to whichever of these three 
causes we assign it.—Budgell, 1685-1736. 


NO GODLESS NATION 


We have found, down to the present day, in all nations, 
even the most degraded, some conception or other of a 


a Higher Being... . It has been said, not without reason, 


that atheism never really existed as a full conviction in any 
human breast. ... That any one should consciously and 
conscientiously make this idle notion his permanent convic- 
tion, and that he should not venerate aught as the Divine 
Power, this is difficult to believe—Christlieb, in Modern 
Doubt and Christian Belief, p. 140, ff. 


NO PEOPLE WITHOUT GOD 


No people is without a consciousness of God. The negroes 
of Africa, the wild Indians of America, have all been ac- 
quainted with a higher Being. Nations and tribes are 
capable of sinking to almost animal savageness and stu- 
pidity; but this is a degenerate, not a natural condition; 
and even then the notion of a God is not entirely obliter- 
ated.—Luthardt, in Fundamental Truths, p. 41. 


98 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN GOD INTUITIVE 


The universality of the idea (of the existence of God) 
evidently cannot be satisfactorily refuted; and if it is estab- 
lished, it proves that it is intuitive, and its intuitiveness 
proves that it is the counterpart of reality; just as the 
reflection of a face in the water is a sufficient evidence that 
the face is not an illusion—Lorimer, in Isms, p. 46. 


NO TOWN WITHOUT A TEMPLE,“ 


Traversing the world, you may find towns without walls, | 
without letters, without kings, without coin, without schools, 
without theaters; but a town without a temple of prayer, no 
one ever saw.—Plutarch. 


BELIEF IN GOD COMMON TO MANKIND 


I firmly believe that God exists, and that He has made a 
revelation to mankind. . . . The different divisions of man- 
kind may differ in regard to some of the attributes of the 
Deity, . . . but common to them all is a belief in God as the 


Supreme Being, who is self-existing and eternal, by whose 


will all things and all other beings were created.—George 
Ticknor Curtis, Creation or Evolution, Pref., p. ix., and p. 5. 


NATURE'S LAWS ALONE GAIN UNIVERSAL CONSENT 


In everything the consent of all nations is to be accounted 
the law of nature, and to resist it is to resist the voice of 
God.—Cicero. 


THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD INNATE 


Among the numerous and diversified tribes that are scat- 
tered over the different regions of the earth, that agree in 
scarcely any other sentiment or article of religious belief, 
we find the most perfect harmony in their recognition of a 
Supreme Intelligence, and in their belief that the soul sur- 
vives the dissolution of its mortal frame.—Dick. 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 99 


BELIEF IN GOD A UNIVERSAL CREED 


How do we know God? There is an innate knowledge 

of Him. We are so made as to feel Him, as it were. It is 
one of the intuitions or first truths of the mind. This 
knowledge is universal, as proved by history, observation, 
and Scripture. Conscience works in some way everywhere. 
Men have everywhere a sense of dependence on some higher 
Being, and of responsibility to Him—Dr. John Hall, in 
Questions of the Day, p. 77. 


PRIMEVAL BELIEF IN GOD 


With regard to three primeval ideas, there is observable 


similarity among all ages and all nations. They have all 


- conceived of One Supreme Being who created and sustains 
all things; they have all believed that man has within his 
body a soul which shares the immortality of the Eternal 
Source of Being whence it was derived; and a natural sense 
of justice, the basis of all other laws, early dawned upon all 
human minds—Lydia Maria Child, Aspirations of the 
World, Introduction. 


MAN TENDS TOWARD GOD 


From Thee, great God! we spring, to Thee we tend, 
Path, motive, guide, original, and end, 
—Samuel Johnson. 


ALL MANKIND SOUGHT GOD 


Ideas of how or where the Divine Being exists were 
vague, and so they remain unto the present day. All people 
on earth from the beginning of time have been “feeling 
after God, if haply they might find him,” and still we are 
obliged to ask, as Job did many centuries ago, “Canst thou 
by searching find out God?’—L. M. Child. 


100 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


» GOD SPEAKS TO ALL MANKIND wy 


The day of national religions is past. The God of the 
universe speaks to all mankind. He is not the God of 
Israel alone. . . . God’s revelation is continuous, not con- 
fined to tables of stone or sacred parchment. He speaks 
to-day to those that would hear Him.—Rabbi Hirsch, at 
the Religious Parliament. 


GOD COMMANDS MOST FIDELITY 


If we look closely at this world, where God seems so 
utterly forgotten, we shall find that it is he, who, after all, 
commands the most fidelity and the most love-—Mad. Swet- 
chine. 


MAN’S REVERENCE FOR GOD 


- What is there in man so worthy of honor and reverence 
as this, that he is capable of contemplating something higher 
than his own reason, more sublime than the whole universe 
—that Spirit which alone is self-subsistent, from which all 
truth proceeds, without which is no truth ?—Jacobi. 


MAN’S SOUL SIGHS FOR GOD 


An old mystic says somewhere, “God is an unutterable 
sigh in the innermost depths of the soul.” With still greater 
justice, we may reverse the proposition, and say the soul 
is a never ending sigh after God—Christlieb. 


. CHINESE ORIGINALLY MONOTHEISTS 


Five thousand years ago the Chinese were monotheists. 
... The original monotheism ... remains in the state 
worship of to-day. ... The fathers of the nation... 
figured the visible heaven as the one thing illimitable. 
Then there arose the idea of God . . . symbolized by the 
figure of this visible sky. Their name for this idea of 
God, conceived of as a personal being, was Ti. ... The 


od 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 101. 


emperor, representing all the millions of his subjects, gives 
in it (the service of incense) solemn expression of their 
obligations to God, and of their purpose (the purpose of 
himself and his royal line) to rule so as to secure the ob- 
jects intended by him in the institution of government. 
Such is my idea of the highest acts of worship in the re- 
ligion of China.—James Legge. 


THE HEAVEN-FATHER OF THREE NATIONS ° 


We have in the Veda the invocations Dyas-pitar, the 
Greek Zeuspater, the Latin Jupiter; and that means in all 
three languages what it meant before these three languages 
were torn asunder,—it means the Heaven-Father—Max 
Mueller. 


ALL AFRICAN TRIBES BELIEVE IN A SUPREME GOD » 


Dr. Livingstone says that all the newly discovered tribes 
in the interior of Africa “have clear ideas of the Supreme 
God. There is no necessity for telling the most degraded of 
the people of the existence of God, or of a future state, for 
these facts are universally admitted.”—L. T. Townsend, 


' The God-Man, p. 87. 


ESQUIMAUX BELIEF IN THE GREAT SPIRIT 


Sir John Franklin, in his account of his second visit to the 
Polar seas, gives the following as the ideas of the elderly 
Esquimaux concerning God: ‘“‘ “We believe that there is a 
Great Spirit, who created everything, both us and the world 
for our use. We suppose that he dwells in the land from 
whence the white people come, that he is kind to the in- 
habitants of those lands, and that there are people who 
never die; the winds that blow from that quarter (the 


south) are always warm. He does not know of the wicked 


state of our country, nor the pitiful condition in which we 
are.’ To the question, ‘Whom do your medicine-men ad- 
dress when they conjure?” they answered, “We do not 


102 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


-think they speak to the master of life; for if they did, we 
should fare better than we do, and should not die. He does 
not inhabit our lands.’ ’—Foster. 


BELIEF IN THE GREAT GOD IN INDIA 


One day when Mr. Richards, missionary in India, was 
conversing with the natives, a fakir came up, and put into 
his hand a small stone, about the size of a sixpence, with 
the impression of two human likenesses scultpured on the 
surface: he also proffered ‘a few grains of rice, and said, 
“This is Mahadeo!” Mr. Richards said, “Do you know 
the meaning of ‘Mahadeo’?”. The fakir replied, “No.” Mr. 
Richards proceeded, “‘‘Mahadeo’ means the great God,— 
he who is God of gods, and besides whom there can be no 
other. Now, this great God is a spirit. No one can see 
a spirit, who is intangible. Whence, then, this visible im- 
pression on a senseless, hard, immovable stone? To whom 
will ye liken God? or what likness will ye compare unto 
him? God is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy. He hath said, I am Jehovah: there 
is no God beside me!” The poor fakir was serious, re- 
spectful, and attentive, continually exclaiming, ‘““Your words 
are true.’’—Foster. 


ANCIENT EGYPT BELIEVED IN ONE GOD 


Myer’s Ancient History, which is the standard in many 
thousands of schools in America, says, concerning the re- 
ligion of ancient Egypt; “The unity of God was the central 
doctrine of the system. The Egyptians gave to the Supreme 
Being the very same name by which he was known to the 
Hebrews—Nuk Pu Nuk, ‘I am that I am.’ ”~ p..r.0nv 


ARCH ZOLOGY AND THE ONE GOD 


No doubt, archeology will yet discover ancient inscrip- 
tions and documents enough to show that belief in the 
one true God was once universal. It still survives amidst 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 103 


the polytheism and idolatry into which heathen nations have 
drifted in their ignorance and darkness. The Jehovah- \ 
Father of the Hebrews, the Jove-Father of the Greeks, and 
the Joa-Pater, or Jupiter, of the Romans, were one and the 
same Jehovah.—J. Gilchrist Lawson. 


PERSIANS WORSHIPED THE SUPREME GOD 


A Jew entered a Persian temple, and saw there the sacred 
fire. He said to the priest, “How, do you worship fire?’— 
“Not the fire: it is to us an emblem of the sun and of his 
animating light,” said the priest. Then asked the Jew, “Do 
you adore the sun as a deity? Do you not know that he also 
is a creature of the Almighty?” The priest answered, that 
the sun was to them only an emblem of the invisible light 
which preserves all things. The Israelite continued, “Does 
your nation distinguish the image from/ the original? They 
call the sun their god, and kneel before the earthly flame. 
You dazzle the eye of the body, but darken that of the mind; 
in presenting to them the terrestrial light, you take from 
them the celestial.’ The Persian asked, “How do you 
name the Supreme Being?’—“We call him Jehovah Ado- 
nai; that is, the Lord who was, who is, and shall be.”— 
“Your word is great and glorious; but it is terrible,” said 
the Persian. A Christian approaching said, “We call him 
Abba Father.” Then the Gentile and the Jew regarded 
each other with surprise, and said, “Your word is the near- 
est and the highest; but who gives you courage to call the 
Eternal thus?”—“The Father himself,’ said the Christian, 
who then expounded to them the plan of redemption. Then 


they believed, and lifted up their eyes to heaven, saying, 


“Father, dear Father;’ and joined hands, and called each 
other brethren—Krummacher. 


GOD'S NAME ON ANCIENT TEMPLE 


-* Once on a time the savans were sorely puzzled by certain 
irregular holes on the front of an ancient temple. One 
more sagacious.than the rest suggested that these indenta- 


104 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


tions might be the marks of nails used to fasten Greek 
characters to the stone. Lines were drawn from one point 
to the next, when they were found to form letters, and 
’ the name of the Deity unexpectedly stood disclosed.— 
Baxendale. 


EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHER'S BELIEF 


Alexander the Great went to hear Psammo, an Egyptian 
philosopher; and the saying of his that pleased him most 
was, that all men are governed by God, for in everything 
that which rules or governs is divine. But Alexander’s 
own maxim was more agreeable to sound philosophy; he 
said, “God is the cammon Father of men, but more par- 
ticularly of the good and the virtuous.”—Plutarch. 


ANCIENT NAMES FOR GOD 


When Alexander, the son of Philip, was at Babylon, he 
sent for a priest from every country and nation which he 
had vanquished, and assembled them together in his palace. 
Then he sat down on his throne, and asked them, saying, 
“Tell me, do you acknowledge and worship a supreme in- 
visible Being?” Then all the priests bowed their heads, 
and answered, “Yea, O king!” And the king asked again, 
“By what name do you call this Being?” Then the priest 
from India answered, ‘We call it Brahma, which signifieth 
the Great.” The priest from Persia said, “We call it 
Ormus; that is, the Light.” The priest from Judza said, 
“We call it Jehovah Adonai, the Lord which is, which was, 
and is to come.” Thus each priest had a peculiar word 
and particular name by which he designated the Supreme 
Being. Then the king was wroth in his heart, and said, 
“You have only one Lord and King, henceforth, you shall 
have only one God, Zeus is his name.’ Then the priests 
were grieved at the saying of the king, and spake, “Our 
people always called him by the name we have proclaimed, 
from their youth up: how, then, may we change it?” But 
the king was yet more wroth. Then an old sage stood forth, 
a Brahmin, who had accompanied him to Babylon, and said, 


UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 105 


“Will it please my lord the king, that I speak unto this 
assembly?” Then he turned to the priests, and said, “Doth 
not the celestial daystar, the source of earthly light, shine 
upon every one of you?” Then all the priests bowed their 
heads, and answered, “Yea!” Then the Brahmin asked 
them, one by one, “How do you call it?” And each priest 
told him a different word and a peculiar name, according 
to his own country and nation. Then the Brahmin said to 
the king, “Shall they not henceforth call the daystar by one 
name? Helios is his name.’ At these words, the king was 
ashamed, and said, ‘Let them each use their own word; for 
I perceive that the name and the image constitute not the 
being.” —Krummacher. 


A GREENLANDER’S IDEA OF GOD 


A converted Greenlander said, “It is true, we were 
ignorant heathens, and knew nothing of God or a Saviour; 
and, indeed, who should tell us of him till you came? but 
thou must not imagine that no Greenlander thinks about 
these things. I myself have often thought a boat, with all its 
tackle and implements, does not grow into existence of 
itself, but must be made by the labor and ingenuity of man; 
and one that does not understand it would directly spoil it. 
Now the meanest bird has far more skill displayed in its 
structure than the best boat; and no man can make a bird. 
But there is still a far greater art shown in the formation 
of a man than of any other creature. Who was it that 
made him? I bethought me that he proceeded from his 
parents, and they from their parents; but some must have 
been the first parents; whence did they come? Common 
report informs me they grew out of the earth; but if so, 
why does it not still happen that men grow out of the 
earth? And from whence did this same earth itself, the sea, 
the sun, the moon, the stars, arise into existence? Certainly 
there must be some being who made all these things; a being 
that always was, and can never cease to be. He must be 
inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise than the 
wisest man. He must be very good, too; because every- 


106 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


thing that he has made is good, useful, and necessary for 
us.’ —Foster. 


THE STOICS BELIEVED IN GOD 


The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that He is 
called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names 
besides.—Diogenes Lertius, 200 A. D. 


ONE DEGRADED TRIBE FORGETTING GOD 


An intelligent traveler in South Africa states that among 
the more degraded tribes he found one where no word was 
known in the language for a “Supreme Being.” There was 
a word remembered but dimly by here and there an old 
man—one or two in a thousand—but entirely lost to the 
mass of the people, signifying, “Him that is above.’ By 
gradual steps the very name of the Supreme had faded out, 
after the vanishing faith in Him, from the savage soul 
Huntington. | 


ANCIENT SYMBOLS OF GOD 


One of the most ancient hieroglyphic representations of 
God was the figure of an eye upon a scepter, to denote 
that God sees and rules all things. 

The Egyptian hieroglyphic was a winged globe and a 
serpent coming out of it; the globe to signify God’s eternity, 
the wings His active power, and the serpent His wisdom. 

The Thracian emblem was a sun with three beams; one 
shining upon a sea of ice and melting it; another upon a 
rock, and melting it; and a third upon a dead man, and 
putting life into him.—Bowes, 


LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 


EDUCATION INCOMPLETE WITHOUT GOD 


All intelligent thinkers upon the subject now utterly dis- 
card and repudiate the idea that reading and writing, with 
a knowledge of accounts, constitute education. The lowest 
claim which any intelligent man now prefers in its behalf is, 
that its domain extends over the threefold nature of man; 
over his body, training it by the systematic and intelligent 
observance of those benign laws which secure health, im- 
part strength and prolong life; over his intellect, invigorat- 
ing the mind, replenishing it with knowledge, and culti- 
vating all those tastes which are allied to virtue; and over 
his moral and religious susceptibilities, also, dethroning self- 
ishness, enthroning conscience, leading the affections out- 
wardly in good will toward man, and upward in gratitude 
and reverence to God.—Horace Mann. 


LIFE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD 


There is need, bitter need, to bring back into men’s minds 
that to live is nothing, unless to live, be to know. Him by 
whom we live—J. Ruskin. 


HISTORY PROCLAIMS “GOD REIGNS” 


At the foot of every page in the annals of nations may 
be written, “God reigns.” Events as they pass away pro- 
claim their original; and if you will but listen reverently, 
you may hear the receding centuries, as they roll into the 
dim. distances of departed time, perpetually chanting “Te 
Deum Laudamus,” with all the choral voices of the count- 
less congregations of the ages.—Bancroft. 

107 


108 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


SHAKESPEARE’S GRATITUDE TO GOD 


God’s goodness hath been great to thee. 

Let never day nor night unhallow’d pass, 

But still remember what the Lord hath done. 
—William Shakespeare. 


CREATION PROCLAIMS A GOD 


The Supreme Being has made the best argument for kis 
own existence in the formation of the heavens and the 
earth, and which a man of sense cannot forbear attending 
to who is out of the noise of human affairs——Addison. 


PLUTARCH’S FAITH IN GOD 


It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such 
an one as is unworthy of Him; for the one is only unbelief 
—the other is contempt.— Plutarch. 


KINGSLEY’S FAITH IN GOD 


Tell me not, O infidel, there is no God, no heaven, no 
hell. Tell me not, O infidel, there is no risen Christ. 

What intelligence less than God’s could fashion the 
human body? What motive power is it, if not God, that 
drives the throbbing engine of the human heart, with cease- 
less, tireless stroke, sending the crimson stream of ‘life 
bounding and circling through every vein and artery? 

What and whence, if not God, is this mystery we call 
mind? What is it that thinks and feels and knows and acts? 
Oh, who can deny the divinity that stirs within us? 

God is everywhere and in everything. His mystery is 
in every bud and blossom and leaf and tree, in every rock 
and rill and vale and mountain, in every spring and rivulet 
and river. | 

The rustle of His wing is in every zephyr; His might 1s in 
every tempest. He dwells in the dark pavilions of every 
storm cloud. The lightning is His messenger and the thun- 


LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 109 


der is His voice. His awful tread is in every earthquake 
and on every angry ocean. The heavens above us teem 
with His myriads of shining witnesses. The universe of 
solar systems whose wheeling orbs course the crystal paths 
of space proclaim through the drear hall of eternity the glow 
and power and dominion of the all-wise, omnipotent and 
eternal God.—Charles Kingsley. 


CARLYLE—GOD IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Capital and labor never can or will agree until both decide 
on doing their work faithfully throughout, and like men of 
conscience and honor whose highest aim is to behave like 
faithful citizens of the universe and obey the eternal com- 
mandments of Almighty God who made them. (Concern- 
ing this advice R. H. Hutton comments thus:) Mr. Car- 
lyle has mended his religious faith since he last described 
the damnable condition of the world in- which he is com- 
pelled to live, and in his letter to Sir Joseph Whitworth 
on the relations of capital and labor he speaks of Almighty 
God with a pious simplicity which is a surprise and a pleas- 
ure, after those ‘““Abysses” and “Eternities” and other ornate 
vagueness and paraphrastic plurals of his middle period. 
... It is to my mind a most satisfactory thing to find 
Mr. Carlyle in his old age dismissing the “Immensities” and 
the “Eternities” altogether, and coming back to the simple 
advice to the people . . . to pray to God that they may 
do their work well. (1874.) 


ATHEISM A HIDEOUS CREED 


I doubt if at all times and in all moods any individual 
ever adopted that hideous creed (atheism), though some 
have professed to do so—Sir Walter Scott’s Private 
Journal. 

CARLYLE’S DEFINITION OF PRAYER 


What I myself practically in a half-articulate way believe 
on it, I will try.to express for you: Prayer is and remains 


ceomer 


110 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


always a native and deepest impulse of the soul of man, 
and, if correctly gone about, is of the very highest benefit— 
nay, one might say indispensability—to every man aiming 
morally high in this world. No prayer means no religion, 
or at least only a dumb and lamed one. . . . Prayer 1s the 
aspiration of our poor, struggling, heavy-laden soul toward 
its Eternal Father. . . . Prayer is a turning of one’s soul, in 
heroic reverence, in infinite desire and endeavor, toward . 
the Highest, the All-Excellent, Omnipotent, Supreme. The 
modern hero, therefore, ought never to give up prayer.— 
Letter to young George A. Duncan, June 9, 1870. 


THE STARS GOD'S PERPETUAL PANORAMA 


One might think that the atmosphere was made transpar- 
ent with this design: to give to man, in the heavenly bodies, 
the perpetual presence of the sublime. If the stars should 
appear one night in 1000 years, how men would believe and 
adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance 
of the city of God which had been shown! But every night 
come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with 
their admonishing smile. The stars awaken a certain rever- 
ence because, though always present, they are inaccessible — 
Emerson, in Nature, p. I. 


THACKERAY S REVERENCE FOR GOD 


When the late William M. Thackeray was returning 
from America, and had arrived within a few hours of 
Liverpool, a Canadian minister on board was, after dinner 
in the saloon, referring to the happiness which the pas- 
sengers had enjoyed together and the solemnity of parting 
from each other never to meet again until the day of judg- 
ment; and when he had ceased Thackeray took up the strain, 
saying that what the reverend gentleman had spoken was 
very proper, and was, he was sure, responded to by the 
hearts of all present. But there was something else which 
he thought they should do before they separated. In his 
opinion they should join in expressing their thanks to God 


/ 


LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 111 


for His goodness to them during the last ten days upon the 
deep, and for bringing them in safety to their destination ; 
and at his request the minister was called on by the com- 
pany to lead their prayers as together they poured out their 
gratitude to Him who is “the confidence of them that are 
afar off upon the sea.” I like to think of this in connection 
with the name of Thackeray; and the story, which is well 
authenticated, blooms in my eyes like an wmmortelle upon 
his grave—Dr. William Taylor. 


POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD 


SPENSER ON GOD’S GOODNESS 


But we, fraile wights, whose sight cannot sustaine, 
The sun’s bright beames when he doth on us shine 
But that their points, rebutted back againe, 

Are dulled, how can we see with feeble eyne 

The glorie of that Majestie Divine 

In sight of whom both sun and moone are darke 
Compared to His least resplendent sparke! 

The means therefore which unto us is lent 

Him to behold, is on His works to looke 

Which He hath made in beautie excellent, 

And in the same as in a brasen booke 

To read enregistred in every nooke 

His goodenesse which His beautie doth declare, 
For all that’s goode is beautifull and faire. 


HORACE’S ODE TO THE ALL-SUPREME 


Who guides below and rules above, 

The great Dispenser and the mighty king; 
Than He none greater, next Him none 
That can be, is, or was: 

Supreme He singly fills the throne. 


GOETHE’S GOD BEHIND NATURE 


The persuasion that a great, producing, regulating and 
conducting Being conceals himself, as it were, behind 
Nature, to make himself comprehensible to us,—such a 
conviction forces itself upon every one.... 


II2 


POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD 113° 


No! such a God my worship may not win 
Who lets the world about his finger spin, 

A thing extern; my God must rule within, 
And whom I own for Father, God, Creator, 
Hold nature in himself, himself in nature; 
And, in his kindly arms embraced, the whole 
Doth live and move by his pervading soul. 


BRYANT’S ODE TO A WATER-FOWL 


There is a Power whose care 
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, 
The desert and the illimitable air, 

Lone, wandering, but not lost. 


He who from zone to zone 

‘Guides through the boundless air thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone 
Will lead my steps aright. 


KIPLING’S RECESSIONAL 


God of our fathers, known of old— 
Lord of our far-flung battle-line— 
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold 
, Dominion over palm and pine— 
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget—Lest we forget. 


LOWELL TO THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS 


God of our fathers, Thou who wast, 
Art, and shalt be! when the eye-wise who flout 
Thy secret presence shall be lost’ 
In the great light that dazzles them to doubt, 
We who believe Life’s bases rest 
_ Beyond the probe of chemic test, 
still, like our fathers, feel Thee near. 
—Atlantic Monthly, Dec., 1876. 


114 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


LOWELL—GOD’S UNLIKENESS TO A CANDLE 


O Power, more near my life than life itself ... 

If sometimes I must hear good men debate 

Of other witness of Thyself than Thou, 

As if there needed any help of ours 

To nurse Thy flick’ring life, that else must cease, 

Blown out, as ’twere a candle, by men’s breath, it 

My soul shall not be taken in their snare, 

To change her inward surety for their doubt 

Muffl’d from sight in formal robes of proof. 
—Poems, p. 404. 


ge tie i OE 


WHITTIER INTERVIEWS STAR-GAZERS 


Was not my spirit born to shine 
Where yonder stars and suns are glowing— 
To breathe with them the light divine . ‘ 
From God’s own holy altar flowing? ; 
To be, indeed, whate’er the soul , ff 
In dreams hath thirsted for so long— iM 
A part of heaven’s glorious whole i 
Of loveliness and song?... , 
O watchers of the stars of night, ) 
Who breathe their fires as we do air! 
Suns, thunders, stars, and rays of light! 
O say, is He, the Eternal, there? 
Bend there, around His awful throne \ 
The seraph’s glance, the angel’s knee? 4 
Or are thy inmost depths His own, * 
O wild and mighty sea? ? 
—Hymn from the French of Lamartine. 


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BROWNING'S GEMS CONCERNING DEITY ‘ 
ai 


I find first, writ down for very A B C of fact: Fi 
In the beginning God made heaven and earth. ee 


# 
What I call God, and fools call Nature. : 
God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the world. « 


POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD 115 


KINGSLEY ON GOD'S ORTHODOXY 


God’s orthodoxy is truth. 


MATTHEW ARNOLD’S FAITH IN GOD 


The true God is and must preéminently be the God of 
the Bible, the Eternal who makes for righteousness, from 
whom Jesus came forth, and whose Spirit governs the 
course of humanity—Literature and Dogma. (Conclusion. ) 


MRS. BROWNING DESCRIBES GOD’S NEARNESS 


They say that God lives very high! 

But if you look above the pines 

You cannot see our God. And why? 

And if you dig down in the mines 

You never see Him in the gold, 

Though from Him all that’s glory shines. 
God is so good, He wears a fold 

Of heaven and earth across His face— 

Like secrets kept, for love, untold. 

But still I feel that His embrace | 

Slides down by thrills through all things made, 
Through sight and sound of every place: 

As if my tender mother laid 

On my shut lips her kisses’ pressure, 

Half waking me at night, and said: 

Who kiss’d you through the dark, dear guesser ? 


ATHEISM A BLIND OWLET 


Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place, 
Portentous sight !—the owlet Atheism, 
Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, 
_ Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, 
And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, - 
Cries out, “Where is it?” 
—Coleridge. 


STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 


WASHINGTON BOWS TO AN ALMIGHTY PRESIDENT 


(In his first Inaugural Address.) It would be peculiarly 
improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent sup- 
plications to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni- 
verse, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose 
providential aids can supply every human defect, that His 
benediction may consecrate, to the liberties and happiness 
of the people of the United States, a government instituted 
by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable 
every instrument employed in its administration to execute 
with success the functions allotted to his charge. In 
tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public 
and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your 
sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- 
citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound 
to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand, which con- 
ducts the affairs of men, more than those of the United 
States. Every step by which they have advanced to the 
character of an independent nation seems to have been 
distinguished by some token of Providential agency.— 


Richardson’s Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 


Dp." 52. 


WASHINGTON’S PRAYER FOR THE NATION 


“I cannot omit the occasion : . . to repeat my fervent 
supplications to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and 
Sovereign Arbiter of nations, that His providential care 
may still be extended to the United States: that the virtue 
and happiness of the people may be preserved; and that 
the government which they have instituted for their pro- 
tection may be perpetual.”—George Washington. 

116 


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STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 117 


WASHINGTON’S FAITH WHEN DYING 


Do not flatter me with vain hopes. I am not afraid to die, 
and therefore can hear the worst. 

Whether, to-night, or twenty years hence makes no dif- 
ference. I know that I am in the hands of a good provi- 
dence.—Washington. | 

Mrs. Washington was at the bedside, where she had 
often been “seen kneeling” with “her head resting upon the 
Bible’; Mr. Lear and Dr. Craik were leaning over the bed; 
and four of the domestics were in the room. He raised 
himself up, and casting a look of benignity on all around 
him, as if to thank them for their kindly attention, he com- 
posed his limbs, closed his eyes, and, folding his arms upon 
his bosom, expired, saying, “Father of Merctes, take me to 
Thyself.’”—Washington. 


LINCOLN’S TRUST IN GOD 


I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may 
return, with a task before me greater than that which rested 
upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine 
Being who ever attended him I cannot succeed. With that 
assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with 
me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let 
us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care 
commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will com- 
‘mend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”—Farewell 
address at Springfield, when leaving to become President. 


LINCOLN WOULD BE ON GOD’S SIDE 


“T hope, Mr. President, that God is on our side,” said a 
member of a visiting clerical delegation; to which the 
President replied, “I have not concerned myself about that 
question;” adding, after the shock of surprise had been 
well effected, “but I have been very solicitous that we 
_ should be on God’s side.” —Banks, from Abbott, The Union 
Gospel News. . 


118 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG 


“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new 
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by 
the people and for the people, shall not perish from the 
earth.’—Abraham Lincoln. 


GLADSTONE’S FAITH IN GOD 


Mr. Gladstone, when asked a short time before he died 
what was his greatest hope for the future, replied: “I 
should say we must look for that to the maintenance of 
the faith in the Invisible. That is the great hope of the 
future; it is the mainstay of civilization. And by that I 
mean a living faith in a personal God. After sixty years 
of public life, I hold more strongly than ever to this convic- 
tion, deepened and strengthened by long experience of the 
reality, and the nearness, and the personality of God.” 


BISMARCK LOYAL TO THE KING OF KINGS 


If I were not a Christian, I would not . . . serve the king 
another hour. Why should I incessantly worry myself and 
labor in this world, exposing myself to embarrassments, 
annoyances and evil treatment, if I did not feel bound to do 
my duty on behalf of God? If I did not believe in a divine 
ordinance which destined this nation to become good and 
great, I would never have taken to the diplomatic trade, or, 
having done so, I would long since have given it up. I 
know not whence I derive my sense of duty but from God.— 
Spoken during Franco-German War. 


FRANKLIN’S BELIEF IN GOD \ 


Letter to Dr. Stiles, President of Yale College. “I have 
read your manuscript with some attention. By the argu- 
ment it contains against a particular Providence, though 
you allow a general Providence, you strike at the founda- 
tions of all religion. For without the belief of a Provi- 


STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 119 


dence, that takes cognizance of, guards and guides, and 
may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship 
a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his pro- 
tection. I will not enter into any discusion of your prin- 
ciples, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall 
only give you my opinion, that, though your reason- 
ings are subtle, and may prevail with some readers, you 
will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of 
mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing 
this piece will be a great deal of odium drawn upon your- 
self, mischief to you and no benefit to others. He that 
spits against the wind, spits in his own face.”—Benjamin 
Franklin. : 


For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, 
I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as pay- 
ing debts. In my travels and since my settlement I have 
received much kindness from men and numberless mercies 
from God. Those kindnesses from men I can therefore 
only return to their fellow men; and I can only show my 
gratitude for these mercies from God by my readiness to 
help my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and com- 
pliments, though repeated weekly, can discharge our real 
obligations to each other, and much less those to our Cre- 
ator.—Benjamin Franklin. 


I have never doubted the existence of the Deity; that He 
made the world and governs it by his Providénce; that the 
most acceptable service of God is doing good to man; that 
our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished 
and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter—Fisher’s The 
True Benjamin Franklin. 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S THEISM 


God is the common Father of us all, but more especially . 
of the best of us——Plutarch’s Lives. 


120 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


NAPOLEON’S BELIEF IN GOD 


His (Napoleon’s) savans, Bourrienne tells us, in that 
voyage to Egypt, were one evening busily occupied arguing 
that there could be no God. They had proved it to their 
satisfaction, by all manner of logic. Napoleon, looking up 
into the stars, answers, “Very ingenious, Messieurs; but 
who made all that?” The atheistic logic runs off from him 
like water. The great Fact stares him in the face: “Who 
made all that ?’—Carlyle in Hero Worship, p. 2109. 


Napoleon was returning to France from the expedition to 
Egypt. A group of French officers one evening entered into 
a discussion concerning the existence of a God. They were 
on the deck of the vessel that bore them over the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. Thoroughly imbued with the infidel and 
atheistical spirit of the times, they were unanimous in their 
denial of this truth. It was at length proposed to ask the 
opinion of Napoleon on the subject, who was standing alone, 
wrapt in silent thought. On hearing the question, “Is there 
a God?” he raised his hand, and, pointing to the starry 
firmament, simply responded, “Gentlemen, who made all 
that?’”—Foster. 


THE WICKEDNESS OF ATHEISM 


It is impossible to govern the world without God. He 
must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more 


than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge. 


his obligation Washington. 


MAN!S DOMINATING IMPULSE 


Daniel Webster was once asked: “What is the most im- 
portant thought you ever entertained?” He replied: ‘The 
thought of my individual responsibility to God.” 


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FAMOUS LAWYERS’ BELIEF IN GOD | 


BLACKSTONE—CORRECT IDEAS ABOUT GOD 


Just ideas of the moral attributes of a Supreme Being 
and a firm persuasion that He will finally compensate every 
action of human life—these are the foundations of judicial 
oaths that call God to witness the truth of those facts which 
perhaps may be known only to Him and the party attest- 
ing. All moral evidence, therefore, all confidence in human 
_ veracity, must be weakened by apostasy and overthrown 

by total infidelity Commentary on the Laws of England. 


GOD GOVERNS THE WORLD WISELY 


God governs the world, and we have only to do our duty 
wisely, and leave the issue to him. —John Jay. 


STORY'S CHARGE TO BOSTON GRAND JURY 


We believe in the Christian religion. It declares our ac- 
- countability to God for all our actions, and holds out to us 
a future state of rewards and punishments as the sanction 
by which our conduct is to be regulated. 


ONE SUPREME BEING 


Far different is the case with Christianity. It propounds 
no equivocal doctrines. It recognizes no false or foreign 
gods. It allows no idolatrous worship. It presents to all 
men one Supreme Being the only proper object of worship, 
unchangeable, infinite, omniscient, all-wise, .all-good, all- 
powerful, all-merciful, the God of all, and the Father of all. 
—Joseph Story, Judge of the Supreme Court. 


121 


122 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


JUDGE SHARSWOOD—FIRST TRUTHS 


The existence of a Supreme Being—a Spirit, infinite, 
eternal, omniscient, omnipotent—is a first truth of moral 
science. 


JUDGE SERGEANT—-COMPETENT WITNESSES 


The test of the competency of a witness on the ground of 
his religious principles is whether the witness believes in 
the existence of a God who will punish him if he swears 
falsely. 


KENT TELLS US ABOUT THE LAWS 


Human laws labor under great imperfections. They ex- 
tend to external actions only. They cannot reach the secret 
crimes which are committed without any witness save the 
all-seeing eye of that Being whose presence is everywhere, 
and whose laws reach the hidden recesses of vice, and carry 
their sanctions to the thoughts and intents of the heart. 


PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN GOD 


SOCRATES FAITH IN GOR 


The end of life is to be like unto God; and the soul fol- 
lowing God will be like unto Him; He being the beginning, 
middle and end of all things——Socrates. 


PLATO CALLED ATHEISM A DISEASE 


Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error 
of the understanding. 


ATHEISM IN ALL RESPECTS HATEFUL 


Man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine 
protection and favor, gathereth a force and faith which hu- 
man nature in itself could not obtain; therefore, as atheism 
is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human 
nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty.— 
Lord High Chancellor Francis Bacon, 


ATHEISM DESTROYS MAN’S NOBILITY 


They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for clearly 
man is of kin to the beasts by his body, and if he be not of 
kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.— 
Bacon. A 


BACON’S BELIEF IN GOD 


-. Thad rather believe all the fables in the Talmud and the 
Koran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. 
—Bacon. 

- 123 


124 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


ATHEISM SENSELESS AND ODIOUS 


This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets 
could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an in- 
telligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are 
the centers of other like systems, these, being formed by the 
like wise counsel, must be all subject to the dominion of the 
One. ... Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind 
that it never had many professors.—Newton. 


PHILOSOPHICAL TO BELIEVE IN GOD 


It became him who created them to set them in order; 
and if he did so, it is unphilosophical to seek for any other 
origin of the world, or to pretend that it might arise out of 
a chaos by the mere laws of nature. 

_ I find more sure marks of the authenticity of the Bible 
than of any profane history whatever—Sir Isaac Newton. 


GOD’S EXISTENCE MATHEMATICALLY DEMONSTRATED 


The idea of a Supreme Being, infinite in power, goodness 
and wisdom, whose workmanship we are, and upon whom 
we depend; and the idea of ourselves as understanding, ra- 
tional beings, would, I suppose, if rightly considered, afford 
such foundations of our duty as might place morality 
among the sciences capable of demonstration, wherein, by 
necessary consequences as incontestible as those of mathe- 
matics, the measure of right and wrong might be made out. 
—Newton. 


CREATION PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE 


Our own being furnishes us with an evident and incon- 
testable proof of a Deity; and I believe nobody can avoid 
the cogency of it who will carefully attend to it. 

I think it is unavoidable for every rational creature that 
will examine his own or any other existence, to have the 
notion of an eternal, wise being, who had no beginning.— 
Locke. 


Spelt 


oe 


tte 


espe. 


<a 
Sst 


ett aes = as 


ook 
ye 


PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN GOD 125 


GOD'S EXISTENCE EASILY PROVED 


There is no truth which a man may more evidently make 
out to himself than the existence of a God; yet he that shall 
content himself with things as they minister to our pleasures 
and passions, and not make enquiry a little further into their 
causes and ends, may live long without any notion of such a 
being.—Locke. 


DESCARTES KNOWLEDGE OF GOD TRUE 


But after I have discovered that God exists, seeing I also 
at the same time observed that all things depend on him, and 
that he is no deceiver, and thence inferred that all which I 
clearly and distinctly perceive is of necessity true: although 
I no longer attend to the grounds of a judgment, no op- 
posite reason can be alleged sufficient to lead me to doubt 
of its truth, provided only I remember that I once possessed 
a clear and distinct comprehension of it. My knowledge of 
it thus becomes true and certain.—Descartes’ Meditations. 


ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE DEPENDS ON FAITH IN GOD 


For is there any truth more clear than the existence of a 
Supreme Being, or of God, seeing it is to his essence alone 
that (necessary and eternal) existence pertains? And al- 
though the right conception of this truth has cost me much 
close thinking, nevertheless at present I feel not only as as- 
sured of it as of what I deem most certain, but I remark 


- further that the certitude of all other truths is so abso- 


_ lutely dependent on it, that without this knowledge it is im- 
_ possible ever to know anything perfectly.—Descartes, 


KANT IS STRUCK BY TWO THINGS 


Amidst all my doubts and speculations, theré are two 
things which always strike me with awe—the starry firma- 
ment above me and the moral law within me. 


yf 


126 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


FISKE FINDS INFINITY IN FINITY 


If we would fain learn something of the Infinite, we must 
not sit idly repeating the formulas of other men and other 
days, but must gird up our loins anew and diligently ex- 
plore on every side that finite realm through which still 
shines the glory of an ever-present God for those who have 
eyes to see and ears to hear.—Excursions of an Evolutionist 
(Dedicatory page). 


HEINE’S FAITH IN THE GOD OF HIS BOYHOOD 


Ah, my child, while I was yet a little boy, while I sat upon 
my mother’s knee, I believed in God the Father, who rules 
up there in heaven, good and great; who created the beau- 
tiful earth and the beautiful men and women thereon; who 
ordained for the sun, moon and stars their courses.—Hein- 
rich Heine. 


THE REAL RULER OF THE UNIVERSE 


It cannot be questioned that the undoubting belief of the 
existence of a Being who realizes our own best ideas of per- 
fection, and of our being in the hands of that Being as the 
Ruler of the universe, gives an increase of power to these 
feelings (aspirations toward goodness) beyond what they 
can receive from reference to a merely ideal conception —J. 
S. Mill on “Theism.” 


THE ETERNITY OF GOD 


If this preéxistent eternity is not compatible with a suc- 
cessive duration, as we clearly and distinctly perceive that 
it is not, then it remains that some being, though infinitely 
above our finite comprehensions, must have an identical, in- 
variable continuance from all eternity; which being is no 
other than God.—Bentley. 


. an 
a a 


PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN GOD 127 


SENECA’S IDEA OF PERFECT LIBERTY 


To obey God is perfect liberty: he that does this shall be 
free, safe, and quiet; all his actions shall succeed to his 
wishes.—Seneca. 


LOTZE PROCLAIMS HIS BELIEF IN GOD 


Hermann Lotze closes one of the profoundest discussions 
of modern times by proclaiming his faith in a personal God. 
“The true beginning of metaphysics,” he says, “lies in ethics. 
I grant that there is something insufficient in this expression, 
but I am yet convinced that I am on the right way in 
philosophy when I find in what ought to be the ground 
of what is. I close my investigation with no consciousness 
at all of infallibility, with the hope that { have not been 
everywhere mistaken, and, for the rest, with the Oriental 
proverb, ‘God knows the truth better than I’ ’”—Rev. Joseph 
Cook. 


GALILEO’S PROFOUND FAITH IN GOD 


- Galileo, the most profound philosopher of his age, when 
questioned by the Roman Inquisition as to his belief in the 
existence of God, replied, pointing to a straw on the floor 
of his dungeon, that from the structure of that object alone 
he would infer with certainty the existence of an intelli- 
gent Creator.—Baxendale. 


SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN GOD 


EDISON’S BELIEF IN A SUPREME INTELLIGENCE 


Chemistry undoubtedly proves the existence of a Su- 
preme Intelligence. No one can study that science, and see 
the wonderful way in which certain elements combine with 
the nicety of the most delicate machine ever devised, and 
not come to the inevitable conclusion that there is a big en- 
gineer who is running this universe. After years of watch- 
ing the processes of nature, I no more doubt the existence 
of an Intelligence that is running things than I do the exist- 
ence of myself—The (Philadelphia) Press, July 16, 1899. 


EDISON COULD ALMOST PROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE 


Mr. Edison does not hesitate to declare his belief in the 
existence of God as seen in Nature and in his providence. 
He says: “Too many people have a microscopic idea of the 
Creator. If they would only study his wonderful works as 
shown in the natural laws of the universe and in Nature her- 
self, they would have a much broader idea of the Great En- 
gineer and his divine power. Indeed, I can almost prove his 
existence by chemistry.” The true man of science finds 
what the first verse of the Bible declares, that “Jn the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1.)— 
Christian Herald, Nov. 22, 1916, p. 1277. 


FARADAY A DEVOUT BELIEVER 


When I consider the multitude of associated forces which 

are diffused through Nature—when I think of that calm 

balancing of their energies which enables those most power- 

ful in themselves, most destructive to the world’s creatures 

-and economy, to dwell associated together and be made sub- 
128 


et a ten 


— 


SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN GOD 129 


servient to the wants of creation—I rise from the contem- 
plation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the 
beneficence and grandeur, beyond our language to express, 
of the Great Disposer of us all—Faraday. 


HERSCHEL ON GOD AND GRAVITY 


It is but reasonable to regard the force of gravitation as 
the direct or indirect result of a will or consciousness exist- 
ing somewhere. i 


HARE CALLS ATHEISM A VACUUM 


There is no being eloquent for atheism. In that ex- 
hausted receiver the mind cannot use its wings—the clearest 
proof that it is out of its element. 


SCIENCE ONLY DENIES AN ABSENTEE GOD 


The idea of God to which Science may properly object is 
the idea of a God who stands outside, an absentee God, in- 
terfering now and then to repair the machinery.—George 
Harris. | : 


SCIENCE AND MONOTHEISM 


It seems impossible to imagine that our intelligence, what- 
ever be the mode of its development, is without an intelli- 
gent author. Science shows that the universe, so far as it 
falls within our vision, is pervaded and ruled by a single 
power, which, as its operations reveal themselves to our 
minds, we cannot help divining to be a mind. Monotheism 
is, at all events, perfectly consistent with the results of phys- 
ical science; while with polytheism science has done away. 
Hence, science and religion—even the most fervent religion 
—have been able to dwell together in the intellects of New- 
ton and Faraday. . . . Order there could hardly be with- 
out an ordering power. . . . It takes, we are told, a period 
of time longer than man’s recorded history for a ray of 
light to reach the earth from the remotest telescopic star. 


130 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Yet the starry field swept by the telescope is inconceivably 
less than that which we must assume to lie beyond... . 
It is inconceivable that we should be the sole denizens of 
the universe.—Guesses at the Riddle of Existence, pp. 228, 
229, 239, 248. Goldwin Smith. | 


GREATEST ASTRONOMERS BELIEVED IN GOD 


The great founders of our modern astronomy were reli- 
gious men. Copernicus, Kepler, and, above all, Sir Isaac 
Newton, who may be said to have fairly unlocked the heav- 
ens to us, were all men to whom Science was the handmaid 
of Devotion, who loved to “think the thoughts of God after 
him,’ and to whom the great charm of astronomical study 
was the fact that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork.”—E. F. Burr, in Ad 
Fidem. | 


SCIENTISTS TACIT BELIEF IN GOD 


The expression “law of nature” is generally employed by 
scientific men with a sort of tacit reference to the original 
sense of the word “law,” namely: the expression of the will 
of a superior—the superior, in this instance, being the 
Ruler of the universe.—J. S. Mill. 


“PAUL CARUS’ BELIEF IN GOD 


My own God conception has developed from the tradi- 
tional Protestant God idea, and has been modified under the 
influence of science, passing through a period of outspoken 


atheism, until it was transformed into . . . the doctrine of 
the super-personal God. ... 1 have come to the conclu- 
sion... that the superpersonal God, the God of science, 


the eternal norm of truth and righteousness, is God indeed; 
He alone is God.—Paul Carus, The Monist, July, 1899. 


ONLY FOOLS DENY GOD 


With an atheist, if there be such, of which I have doubts, 
I would have no contention; for such a man who, in the 


SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN GOD 131 


midst of such a universe, can turn away from it all and say, 
in his heart, “There is no God,” is simply a poor fool, upon 
whom all argument would be wasted.—P. S. Henson. 


AGASSIZ PRAYED CONSTANTLY 


The late Professor Agassiz once said to a friend, “I will 
frankly tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific 
investigations convinces me that a belief in God—a God who 
is behind and within the chaos of vanishing points of human 
knowledge—adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who at- 
tempts to penetrate into the regions of the unknown. Of 
myself I may say, that I never make the preparations for 
penetrating into some small province of nature hitherto un- 
discovered without breathing a prayer to the Being who 
hides His secrets from me only to allure me graciously on 
to the unfolding of them.”—Selected. 


SCIENCE DEALS ONLY WITH MATERIAL THINGS 


Science discloses the method of the world, but not its 
cause; religion (or theology) discloses the cause of the 
world, but not its method. There is no conflict between 
_ them except when either forgets its ignorance of what the 
other alone can know.—Martineau. 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS CONCERNING 
GOD 


PAINE'S REASONI FOR BELIEVING IN GOD - 


I know that I did not make myself, and yet I have an 
existence. . . . Every man is an evidence to himself that 
he did not make himself ; neither could his father make him- 
self, nor his grandfather, nor any of his race; neither could 
any tree, plant or animal make itself; and it is the convic- 
tion arising from this evidence that carries us on, as it were 
by necessity, to the belief of a first cause eternally existing, 
of a nature totally different from any material existence 
that we know of, and by the power of which all things exist; 
and this first cause man calls God.—T. Paine, The Age of 
Reason. 


PAINE DESCRIBES GOD'S GREATNESS 


Could a man.be placed in a situation and endowed with 
the power of vision to behold at one view and to contem- 
plate deliberately the structure of the universe, to mark the 
movements of the several planets, the cause of their varying 
appearances, the unerring order in which they revolve, even 
to the remotest comet, their connection and dependence on 
each other, and to know the system of laws established by 
their Creator, that governs and regulates the whole, he 
would then conceive . .'. the power, the wisdom, the vast- 


ness, the munificence of the Creator. . . . Do we want 
to contemplate His power? We see it in the immensity of 
the creation. . . . His wisdom? We see it in the un- 


changeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is 
governed. . . . His munificence? We see it in the abun- 


dance with which He fills the earth. . . . His mercy? 
We see it in His not withholding that abundance from even 
132 


2 a 
GES hE I8 Tt 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 133 


the unthankful. . . . If objects of gratitude and admira- 
tion are our desire, do they not present themselves every 
hour to our eyes? Do we not see a fair creation prepared 
to receive us the instant that we are born—a world fur- 
nished to our hands, that cost us nothing? Is it we that 
light up the sun, that pour down the rain, and fill the earth 
with abundance? Whether we sleep or wake, the vast ma- 
chinery of the universe goes on. Are these things, and the 
blessings that they indicate in the future, nothing to us?— 
Ibid. : 


PAINE CALLS ATHEISTS FOOLS 


Were man impressed as fully and as strongly as he ought 
to be with the belief in God, his moral life would be regu- 
lated by the force of that belief. He would stand in awe of 
God and of himself, and would not do the thing that could 
not be concealed from either. . . . The Power that called 
us into being can, if He please and when He pleases, call us 
to account for the manner in which we have lived here, and 

. it is rational to believe that He will. . . . Religion 
is man’s bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart. . 
The practice of moral truth, or, in other words, a practical 
imitation of the moral goodness of God, is no other than 
our acting toward each other as He acts,—benignly toward 
all, . . . forbearing with each other; for He forbears with 
all. . . . I believe in the equality of man, and I believe 
that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, 
and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. The 
world is my country, and to do good is my religion. . 
It is the fool only, and not the philosopher or the prudent 
man, that would live as if there were no God.—Ibid. 


VOLTAIRE SAYS BEWARE OF ATHEISTS 


I would not wish to come in the way of an atheistical 
prince whose interest it should be to have me pounded in a 
mortar; I am quite sure that I should be so pounded. Were 
I a sovereign, I would not have to do with atheistical cour- 
tiers whose interest it was to poison me; I should be under 


134 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


the necessity of taking an antidote every day. It is, then, 
absolutely necessary for princes and people that the idea of 
a Supreme Being, creating, governing, rewarding and pun- 
ishing, be engraven on their minds. 


VOLTAIRE ON THE NECESSITY OF GOD 


\ 
If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. y 
ROOT BPE AF i LAL ce } ee aby smite phy wl 


—Voltaire. be ae) 


A, op és : 
VOLTAIRE’S DEATH BED PRAYER, ETC. 


O God, whom all things proclaim! O Ged, who knowest 
me! Hear the last words that my lips pronounce. If I have 
deceived myself, it has been through searching for Thy 
laws. My heart may have wandered, but it was full of 
Thee.”—See Aspirations of the World, by Lydia Maria 
Child, p. 8o. | 


On Voltaire’s tomb is this inscription: 


HE COMBATED 
THE ATHEISTS 


DIDEROT HEARS GOD SPEAK HEBREW 


Walking one day in the fields with a friend, Diderot 
plucked an ear of corn and fell “a-musing” over it. “What 
are you doing?” asked the friend. “Listening,” was the 
reply. “Who is speaking to you?” “God.” “Well, what 
does He say?” “He speaks in Hebrew. The heart compre- 
-hends, but the understanding is at fault.’ 


DIDEROT SAYS EXTEND YOUR GODHEAD 


Madmen! (he shouted to the French ecclesiastics) tear 
down the walls that imprison your ideas! Extend your 
Godhead! Confess that He is everywhere, or deny that He 
is at all! 

ROUSSEAU’S BELIEF IN GOD 


“When my reason is afloat, my faith cannot long remain 
in suspense and I believe in God as firmly as in any other 


4 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 135 


truth whatever ; in short, a thousand motives draw me to the 
consolatory side, and add the weight of hope to the equilib- 
rium of reason.—J. J. Rousseau. 


HUME A DEIST 


(Talks while taking evening walk.) No one can look up 
at that sky without feeling that it must have been put in 
order by an intelligent Being. The whole frame of nature 
‘bespeaks an intelligent Author. 


BOLINGBROKE S FREE THOUGHT THEISTIC 


In his biography entitled Bolingbroke, a Historical Study, 
J. C. Collins says of him (p. 185): “His philosophy . . 
may be briefly summarized :—“There lives and works, self- 
existent and indivisible, one God of the universe... 
(having) infinite wisdom coincident with infinite benevo- 
lence. . . . The voice of God speaks in the harmony of 
the universe. One of the most striking proofs of that har- 
mony lies in a sort of fundamental connection between the 
idea of God and the reason of man, and it is this bond which 
ennobles morality into something more than a conventional 
code.” (On p. 181 we have the closing scene of his life:) 
His sufferings (from cancer) were dreadful. He bore them 
with heroic fortitude, and he took his farewell of one of his 
few friends whom fortune had spared to him, with senti- 
ments not unworthy of that sublime religion which he had 
long rejected. . . .: “God, who placed me here, will do 
what He pleases with me hereafter, and He knows best what 
to do. May He bless you.” These are the last recorded 
words of Bolingbroke. On December 12, 1751, he was no 
more. 


BRADLAUGH WOULD NOT DENY GOD 


I do not stand here to prove that there is no God. If 


I should undertake to prove such a proposition, I should de- 


serve the ill words of the oft-quoted Psalmist applied to 
those who say,- “There is no God.” I do not say that there 


136 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


1s no God.—Charles Bradlaugh, His Life and Works, Vol. 
I, p. 210. This statement Mr. Bradlaugh made, in varying 
words, over and over again—A Record... by His 
Daughter, Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Ibid., Vol. I., p. 87. 


INGERSOLL NOT AN ATHEIST 


(Dr. Field writes:) You do not absolutely deny the ex- 
istence of a Creative Power, for that would be to assume a 
knowledge which no human being can possess. This, I 
must do you the justice to say, you do not affirm.—The N. 
Amer. Review, Aug., 1887, and in The Evangelist. In his 
Lectures Ingersoll says: There may be some Being be- 
neath whose wing the universe exists, and whose every 
thought is a glittering star. 


INGERSOLL SAYS THE ORBS “WERE FASHIONED” 


This world is but a speck in the shining, glittering uni- 
verse ,of existence. The telescope, in reading the infinite 
leaves of the heavens, has ascertained that light travels 192,- 
000 miles per second, and would require millions of years 
to come from some of the stars to this earth. Yet the beams 
of those stars mingle in our atmosphere; so that if those dis- 
tant orbs were fashioned when this earth began, we must 
have been whirling in space not 6000, but many millions of 
years. 


POPE DENOUNCES ATHEISTS 


An atheist is but a mad ridiculous derider of piety, but a 
hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it 
easier to be on his knee than to rise to a good action — 
Pope. 


DEISTS NOW EXTINCT AS DODOS 
\ 
After existing in Europe two or three centuries, and later 
in the United States, deism seems to have become, in this 


country especially, extinct. Deists, like the dodo . 


Se ae aT eS Ee 


ee 
= 


Thy 


«DMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 137 


seem actually to have ceased to propagate their species. In 
my youth, and even after I entered the ministry, it was not 
an uncommon event to meet a deist, but I cannot remember 
seeing one for . . . thirty or forty years. . . . Has the 
whole tribe died out?—S. J. Sawyer, Universalist, in The 
Christian Leader. See also The Literary Digest, Novem- 


ber 6, 1897. 


ATHEISM NOW EXTINCT 


Skepticism no longer says, “There is no God.” Science 
now joins with Scripture in leaving that bold, arrogant, 
monstrous assertion to the fool. We have gotten away from 
open, avowed atheism. Blank and utter denial of God’s 
existence is too much for modern doubt.—Herrick Johnson, 
Christianity’s Challenge, p. 5. 


ATHEISTS NOW IMAGINARY BEINGS 


When Archdeacon Farrar was here, he talked about an 
imaginary being that he called “the atheist.” But it is prob- 


able that not one of his hearers ever met an atheist. There 


is not a thoroughly educated atheist on earth to-day. It is a 
species as extinct as the dodo.—Savage. 
NO REAL ATHEISTS EXIST 


Atheistn itself is purely negative. It simply denies what 
Theism asserts. The proof of theism is therefore the refu- 


- tation of atheism. “Atheist” is a term of reproach. Few 


men are willing to call themselves or to allow others to call 
them by that name. Hume, we know, resented it. The 
question has often been discussed whether atheism is pos- 
sible. If the question be whether a man can emancipate 
himself from a conviction that there is a personal Being to 
whom he is responsible, it must be answered in the negative. 
. . . The “speculative atheist” lives with the abiding con- 
viction that there is a God to whom he must render an ac- 


 count—Hodge, Sys. Theol., I., 240, 241. 


138 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


ATHEISM A FOOL'S CREED 


The atheistic view—that this world needs no God, that it 
has in itself provision for all the phenomena that have taken 
place—instead of simplifying matters and relieving us, 
makes matters still more difficult to comprehend. Atheism 
taxes credulity a great deal more than even the most super- 
stitious notions do. No man can believe that things happen 
of themselves. There is a force prior to an effect ; and that 
fact is wrought into the—I had almost said—common-sense 
of mankind—Henry Ward Beecher, Sermon on Divine 
Providence and Design. 


ATHEISM WOULD BE A HELL 


An atheistic and materialistic democracy seems to me a 
very hell upon earth——Pressensé. 


ATHEISM IS’ SOUL PARALYSIS 


The world has always been free to suppose that such sea- 
sons as day and night, and spring and summer, such crea- 
tures as the nightingale and man, such a star as the sun, all 
came from mud and water and fire mingling of their own 
accord; but the world has had no wide use for such conclu- 
sions. Of its own free choice it has avoided atheism, and 
has never made up anywhere a civilization without discard- 
ing the idea. . . . The human race, being at perfect liberty 
to espouse atheism, has always repudiated it as the paralysis 
of the soul—Swing. 


ATHEISM A DESTITUTION 


I have no stones to throw at Atheism, any more than I 
have stones to throw at blindness. It can never be more 
than a very sore and sad limitation; not an institution, but a 
destitution. This Anglo-Saxon nature is not good soil for 
it; no argument can make it take hold and grow in us, any 
more than arguments can make roses take hold and grow in 
Aberdeen granite—Swing. 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 139 


ATHEISTS NEVER PROFOUND SCHOLARS 


A little natural philosophy, and the first entrance into it, 


doth dispose the opinion to atheism; but. . . much nat- 
ural philosophy, and wading deep into it, will bring about 
men’s minds to religion. . . . Against atheists the very 


savages take part with the very subtlest philosophers. . 

I would rather believe all the fables in the Koran (etc.) than 
that this universal frame is without a Mind—Lord Bacon, 
Essays. 


WHY MEN DENY GOD 


Errors of this kind (“naturalisms”) . . . arise from 
the mistaken idea that men can, “by searching . . . find 
out the Almighty to perfection;’ te. by reasoning and 
science can apprehend the nature of the Deity in a more ex- 
alted and accurate manner than when in comparative igno- 
rance; whereas, it is clearly necessary that God’s way of re- 
vealing Himself should be a simple way which all may com- 

prehend. This conception of God, which is the child’s, 1s 
- the only one which can be universal and true. The moment 
that in our pride we refuse to accept the condescension of 
the Almighty and desire Him, instead of stooping to hold 
our hands, to rise before us in His glory—we, hoping that 
by standing in a grain of dust or two of human knowledge 
higher than our fellows, we may behold the Creator as He 
‘rises—-God takes us at our word: He rises into His own 
invisible and inconceivable majesty ; He goes forth upon the 
ways which are not our ways, and retires into the thoughts 
which are not our thoughts; and we are left alone. And 
presently we say in our vain hearts, “There is no God.”—J. 
- Ruskin. 


CHALMERS PITIES THE ATHEIST 


I pity one who can gaze upon the grandeur and glory of 
the natural universe and behold not the touches of the finger 
of Him who is over all. I do commiserate the condition of 
the unbeliever who can gaze upon the unfading and imper- 
_ ishable sky spread out so magnificently above him, and say 


140 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


that all this is the work of chance! In him the Godlike gift 
of intellect 1s debased. . . . What to him is the revela- 
tion from on high but a sealed book? While standing on the 
footstool of Omnipotence and gazing upon the throne of 
Jehovah, he shuts his intellect to the light of reason. 


SORROW CURES ATHEISM 


“There is no God,” the foolish saith, 
But none, “There is no sorrow;” 
And Nature oft the cry of Faith 
In bitter need will borrow: 
Eyes which the preacher could not school 
By wayside graves are raised ; 
And lips say, “God be pitiful,” 
Who ne’er said, “God be praised.” 
—Mrs. Browning. 


ATHEISM A BRUTAL ERROR 


He who discerns nothing but mechanism in the universe 
has in the fatalest way missed the secret of the universe al- 
together. . . . This seems to me the most brutal error that 
men could fall into. It is not true. A man who thinks so 
will think wrong about all things in the world; this original 
sin will vitiate all other conclusions that he can form. . . 
The man, I say, is become spiritually a paralytic man... . 
For the world’s sake and our own we will rejoice greatly 
that Mechanical Atheism, etc., with all their poison dews, 
are going, and as good as gone.—Carlyle, Hero Worship. 


ATHEISM COLLIDING WITH GOD 


When George Stephenson was trying to pass his bill for 
railways in England, a peer said to him, “Suppose that a 
cow were to get on the line when one of your new-fangled 
engines was on the road?” “So much the worse for the 
coo!” said he. If you get into collision with God, it is so 
much the worse for you.u—F. B. Meyer. 


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ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 141 


MILL’S DENOUNCEMENT OF AGNOSTICISM 


My opinion of this doctrine,—namely, that nothing can be 


known or understood of moral attributes in a Supreme Be- 


ing,—in whatever way presented, is that it is simply the 
most pernicious doctrine now current, and the question 
which it involves is, beyond all others which now engage 
speculative minds, the decisive one between good and evil in 
the Christian world.—John Stuart Mill. 


BISHOP FOSS DENOUNCES AGNOSTICS 


The truth of a personal God is the underlying bed-rock 
of the whole Bible and the fundamental conception of all 
religious belief; moreover, it is the great and manifestly- 
felt need of philosophy and of the human heart... . And 
‘yet agnostics speak of Him as “the Unknowable,” thus go- 
ing, in their impertinent assumption of universal knowl- 
edge, lower than their cousins in ancient Athens, who did 
erect altars “to the Unknown God,” but who never thought 
of speaking of Him as “the Unknowable.” David. has 

_ drawn their picture to the life. Far be it from me to speak 
a single severe word concerning any honest and pained and 


' seeking doubter. But as to these all-knowing and confident- 


ly-asserting doubters, I think that David has made their 
photograph when he says, “The fool hath said in his heart: 
“There is no God,” as though only a fool could say it, and he 
in his heart only. And then he finishes the picture by say- 
ing, “They are corrupt; they have done abominable works.” 
—C. D. Foss (Bishop), General Conference Sermon, May 
20, 1888. 


ATHEISM IS RANK HYPOCRISY 


There never was and never will be’such a thing as an 
honest atheist. All professions of atheism are rank hypoc- 


-risy. If a man could honestly doubt the existence of God, 


a just God would not punish him for his unbelief. Unbe- 


lief would not be a sin if it were honest. To admit the hon- 


esty of a professed atheist is to doubt the justice and ver- 


142 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


acity of God. God has given even the heathen such evi- 
dences of His existence that they are without excuse if they 
do not glorify Him as God with all the light they possess. 
Creation, reason, conscience and the Spirit of God all com- 
bine to convince men of the existence of God. That is why 
atheism never has overthrown, and never will overthrow 
faith in God. There is no excuse for atheism. The only 
real atheist is the man who has so seared his conscience with 
sin that he has lost all consciousness of God.—J. Gilchrist 
Lawson. 


NO GREAT MEN WERE ATHEISTS 


It is probable that no truly great man ever claimed to be 
an atheist. Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Paine, Hume, Bo- 
lingbroke and other early skeptics of note claimed to be 
Deists, or believers in God but not believers in the Bible or 
the Deity of Christ. Bradlaugh, Ingersoll, the Darwinian 


skeptics, and skeptics of the present day, are known as Ag-) 
nostics, which is the Greek term corresponding to the Latin. 
ignoramuses, and means that they were, or are, ignorant as 


to whether or not there is a God. It is now considered un- 
scientific to deny the existence of God. The more popular 
and scientific form of skepticism is to profess ignorance as 
to whether or not there is a God; or, in other words, to 
claim to be an Agnostic. A man who claims to be an atheist 
has surrendered all his chances of being considered either a 
great scholar or a profound thinker. Whenever you hear a 
man call himself an atheist, you may know that he is truly 


an ignoramus, whether he calls himself that or not—J. Gil- 


christ Lawson. 


THE BEST PEOPLE HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD 


Running like a Gulf-stream through the sea of time, 
comes the affirmation that God has manifested Himself to 
man, and the best men have affirmed it most persistently. 
Wherever this affirmation has made its way, the icebergs of 
skepticism have disappeared, the temperature of virtue has 
risen, and the sweet fruits of charity have ripened. If the 


—— 
a 


a 


Onl shaid see, 


ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS 143 


belief be false, then a lie has blessed the world, and the soul 
is so organized that it reaches its highest state of develop- 
ment in an atmosphere of deception; for it is a fact that man 
is purest and woman most virtuous where belief in God’s 
manifestations is most intense and real.—O. P. Gifford. 


ROBESPIERRE SWAYS FRANCE FOR GOD 


During the Reign of Terror, France was declared by the 
National Assembly to be a nation of atheists. Robespierre 
proclaimed in the Convention that belief in the existence of 
a God was necessary to those principles of virtue and mo- 
rality upon which the republic was founded. Soon after 
this the Assembly recommended that the people recognize 
the “Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul.” 
—Student’s France, ch. xxvii, § 6. 


CHARACTER OF GOD 


GOD NOT WEAK IN CHARACTER 


Many people have their own god; and he is much what 
the French may mean when they talk of Le bon Dieu,—very 
indulgent, rather weak, near at hand when we want any- 
thing, but far away, out of sight, when we have a mind to 
do wrong. Such a god is as much an idol as if he were an 
image of stone.—Hare. 


WRONG CONCEPTIONS OF GOD’S CHARACTER 


Ah, my friends, we must look out and around to see what 
God is like. It is when we persist in turning our eyes in- 
ward, and prying curiously over our own imperfections, 
that we learn to make God after our own image, and fancy 
that our own darkness and hardness of heart are the pat- 
terns of His light and love-—Charles Kingsley. 


MAN JUDGES GOD BY HIMSELF 


God said, “Let us make man in our image.” Man said, 
“Let us make God in our image.”—Douglas Jerrold. 


GOD INFINITE IN MERCY 


God, who inhabitest light inaccessible—the hidden God, 
who canst not be seen by the eyes . . . comprehended by 
the intellect, nor explained by the tongue of man or angel 
—I seek Thee, though I cannot grasp Thee; I call upon 
Thee, though I cannot describe Thee. Whatever Thou art, 
Thou art everywhere. I find no name wherewith to name 
Thy Majesty. . . . Above all else Thou art merciful... . 


144 


Veet eae 


a eee 


CHARACTER OF GOD 145 


Deep calleth unto deep. The deep of misery calls to the 
deep of mercy. May the deep of mercy swallow up the deep 
of misery. Have mercy upon me... . according to the 
mercy of God . . . which is infinite —Savonarola. 


GOD JUST, HOLY AND WISE 


To escape from evil we must be made, as far as possible, 
like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just, 
and holy, and wise —Plato. 


GOD CAREFUL, KIND AND GOOD 


The very word “God” suggests care, kindness, goodness ; 
and the idea of God in his infinity is infinite care, infinite 
kindness, infinite goodness—We give God the name of 
good: it is only by shortening it that it becomes God.—H. 
W. Beecher. 


A PAGAN’S CONCEPTION OF GOD 


(Address at the Parliament of Religions.) God is infinite; 
what limit is there in His wisdom or His righteousness ? 
All the Scriptures sing of His glory; all the prophets . 
declare His majesty; all the martyrs have reddened the 
world with their blood, in order that His holiness might be 
known. God is the one infinite good; . . . the eternal, 

. the inspirer of mankind. . . . Nature is God's 
abode. He did not create it and leave it to itself, but He 
lives in every particle of its great structure. . . . Neither 
in Scripture, nor in nature, nor in prophet, is the Spirit of 
God realized in His fullness, but in man’s soul; and there 
alone is the purpose of God fully revealed. . . . The Love 
of God repeats itself century after century in the pious of 
every race; the Love of Man makes all mankind its kindred. 
—Mozoomdar. 


GOD’S CHARACTER NOT FULLY REVEALED 


A traveler writes, “I saw a flaming globe of fire, magnifi- _ 
cent indeed, but too terrible for the eye to rest upon, if its 


146 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


beams had been naked and exposed ; but it was suspended in 
a vase of crystal so transparent that while it softened the in- 
tensity of its rays, it shrouded nothing of its beauty. On the 
contrary, that which before would have been a mass of un- 
distinguishable light, now emitted through the vase many 
beautiful and various colored rays, which riveted the behold- 
er with wonder and astonishment.” Such is God manifested 
in Christ. Out of Christ he meets the affrighted sinner’s 
eye as a “consuming fire.’’—Salter. 


GOD NOT A THIEF 


Sanhedrim Talmud gives the following legend: A prince 
once said to Rabbi Gamaliel, Your God is a thief; he sur- 
prised Adam in his sleep and stole a rib from him. The 
Rabbi's daughter overheard this speech, and whispered a 
word or two in her father’s ear, asking his permission to 
answer this singular opinion of herself. He gave his con- 
sent. The girl stepped forward, and, feigning terror and 
dismay, threw her hands aloft in supplication, and cried 
out, “My liege, my liege, justice! revenge!’ “What has 
happened?” asked the prince. “A wicked theft has taken 
place,’ she replied. “A robber has crept secretly into our 
house, carried away a silver goblet, and left a golden one in 
its stead.” “What an upright thief!” exclaimed the prince; 
“would that such robbers were of more frequent occur- 
rence!” “Behold, then, sire, the kind of thief our Creator 
was; he stole a rib from Adam, and gave him a beautiful 
wife instead.” “Well said!” replied the prince.—Foster. 


BEAUTY OF GOD’S CHARACTER 


The character of God is but little seen but from revela- 
tion. Redemption—that is the glass which reflects its true 
beauty. Look at the light of day: it presents one uniform 
and undistinguished and unbroken mass of light; the many 
beautiful rays and colors which united together to form that 
light are lost and hid from our eyes. It is science only that 
has discovered to us this fact. But when we take the prism, 


CHARACTER OF GOD 147 


and cause this apparently simple and uncompounded light 
to pass through its sides, we are charmed with the beauty of 
its rays, the richness and variety of its colors: so, when we 
turn away from the glass which redemption holds up, how 
many of the attributes of God are hid from us! That it is 
which (as the prism separates and untwists the rays of 
light) brings to light the hidden glories of the Godhead. 
There it is: his justice and mercy, his holiness and purity 
and love beam, and, like rays of light, pour their effulgence 
on our astonished sight; and the Almighty shines forth in 
all the glory and beauty of these attributes now manifested 
and revealed to his creation.—Salter. 


LOVE OF GOD 


GOD IS LOVING AND MERCIFUL 


God is love.—I John 4:8. 

And we have known and believed the love that God hath 
to us.—I John 4:16. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life-—John 3:16. 

The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
suffering, Aes abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, pore ying iniquity and transgression 
and sin.—Ex. 34:6, 7. 

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us—Rom. 5:8: 

We love him, because he first loved us.——lI John 4:19. 

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving 
kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mer- 
cies blot out my transgressions.—Ps, 51:1. 

For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plen- 
teous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.—Ps. 51:1. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love where- 
with he loved us—Eph. 2:4. 

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore 
with loving kindness have I drawn thee.—Jer. 31:3. 


GOD IS LOVE 


| To me this is the profoundest of all truths,—that the 
‘whole of the life of God is the sacrifice of self. God is 
love: love is sacrifice—to give rather than to receive,—the 
blessedness of self-giving. If the life of God were not such, 
it would be falsehood to say that God is love; for, even in 


{ 148 


LOVE OF GOD 149 


our human nature, that -which seeks to enjoy all, instead of 


giving all, is known by a very different name from that of 
love. All the life of God is a flow of this divine self-giving 


charity. Creation itself is sacrifice,—the self-importation of 
the Divine Being. Redemption, too, is sacrifice, else it could 
not be love; for which reason we will not surrender one iota 
of the truth that the death of Christ was the sacrifice of 
God.—F. W. Robertson. 


LOVE GOD’S TRUE NAME 


It is God’s true name. Why not indeed change the name 
of our Deity? Why not teach children to say, when asked— 
Who made you?—Love, the Father. Who redeems you ?— 
Love, the Son. Who sanctifies you?—Love, the Holy 
Ghost. Why is this dear name not sown in our gardens in 
living green, hung on the walls of nurseries and on the por- 
tals of churches? Surely on some day of balm did this 
golden word pass across the mind of the Apostle, when, per- 
haps, pondering on the character of Jesus, and feeling his 
own heart burning within him, he spread out the spark in 
his bosom, till it became a flame, encompassing the uni- 
verse, and the great generalization leaped from his lips— 
“God is Love.’ Complete as an epic, and immortal as com- 
plete, stands this poem-sentence, insulated in its own mild 
glory, and the cross of Jesus is below.—G. Gilfillan. 


HAVE FAITH IN THE LOVE OF GOD 


Never be afraid of God unless you are sinning against 
Him; always believe that behind what seems difficult and 
mysterious there is a heart as true and tender as the heart 
of the sweetest, gentlest woman that ever pressed her child 
to her bosom. Nay, all the love in all women’s hearts to- 
gether, compared to the love of His heart, is as a glow- 
worm’s torch compared to the sun at noon-tide—F. B. 
Meyer, The Northfield Year Book, p. 296. 


150 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD'S LOVE GREATER THAN OURS 


No man has ever manifested such love as this. In a few 
instances one man has been willing to sacrifice his life for a 
friend; and not a few fathers and mothers have been will- 
ing to endanger their lives for the welfare of a son or 
daughter. But the instance has never yet occurred where a 
man was willing to give his own life, or the life of a child, 
for an enemy. No monarch on the throne has ever thought 
of giving the heir to his crown to die for a traitor, or a re- 
bellious province; and amidst the multitudes of treason 
which have occurred, it has never, probably, for one instant, 
crossed the bosom of the offended sovereign to suppose 
that such a thing was possible; and if it had occurred it 
would have been at once dismissed as not worth more than 


a passing thought. No magistrate has ever lived who would |. 
have been willing to sentence his own son to the gallows in © 
place of the guilty wretch whom it was his duty to sen- — 


tence to death. Not an instance has ever occurred in our 
own couuntry—trich as it is in examples of benignity and 
kindness—in which a judge on the bench would have been 
willing to commute a punishment in this manner, if it had 
been in strict accordance with equity and law; and prob- 
ably the records of all nations might be searched in vain for 
such an instance. We know that monarchs often feel, and 
that magistrates are not destitute of a tender heart, and that 
the man on the bench who passes the severe sentence of the 
law often does it in tears. The present King of France 
passes every night to a late hour in carefully examining the 
cases of those who are condemned to death, and in the 
silence of the night-watches ponders all the reasons why a 
pardon should be extended in any case, and often with a 
heavy heart signs the warrant for death; and Washington 
wept when his duty constrained him to approve the sentence 
which doomed the accomplished André to the gallows; but 
would these feelings in either instance, or in any instance, 
prompt to the surrender of a son—an only son—to the dis- 
grace of the gibbet to save the spy or the traitor? We are 
saying nothing in disparagement of such men—for they are 


LOVE OF GOD 151 


but men, and not God—when we say that their feelings of 
compassion have made no approach to such a sacrifice. 
Their deep emotions, their tears, their genuine sorrow, their 
unaffected and noble benevolence—though an honor to our 
nature—have not approached the question whether such a 
sacrifice was possible or proper; and, we may add, it is not 
to be approached in this world. The nearest approach of 
which I have ever heard to anything like this feeling was. 
in the pathetic wish of David that he had himself been per- 
mitted to die in the place of a rebellious and ungrateful 
son. “O, my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom, would 
God I had died for thee. O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 
Kings xviii. 33.) Strong was that love which would lead a 
monarch and a father to be willing to die for such a son; 
but how far removed still from the love which would lead to 
_ the sacrifice of a son for the guilty and the vile!—Barnes, 
1798-1870. 


GOD'S LOVE GAVE CHRIST TO DIE 


It breaks our hearts to behold our children struggling in 
the pangs of death;.but the Lord beheld his Son struggling 
under agonies that never any felt before him. He saw him 
falling to the ground, groveling in the dust, sweating blood, 
and amidst those agonies, turning himself to his Father, and, 
with a heart-rending cry, beseeching him, “Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass.” Luke 22:42. That love must 
needs want a name which made the Father of mercies de- 
liver this only Son to such miseries for us—John Flavel. 


GOD’S LOVING KINDNESS 


The thing that lasts in the universe is God’s kindness, 
which continues “from everlasting to everlasting.” What a 
revelation of God! Oh, dear friends, if only our hearts 
could open to the full acceptance of that thought, sorrow 
and care and anxiety, and every other form of trouble would 
fade away, and we should be at rest. The infinite, undying, 
imperishable love of God is mine. Older than the moun- 
tains, deeper than their roots, wider than the heavens, and 


152 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


stronger than all my sin, is the love that grasps me and 
keeps me and will not let me go, and lavishes its tenderness 
upon me, and beseeches me, and pleads with me, and wooes 
me, and rebukes me, and corrects me when I need, and sent 
His Son to die for me.—Alexander Maclaren. 


GOD'S LOVE OUTWEIGHS ALL ELSE 


The thought that God is love outweighs all other 
thoughts. How shall we get that love? It is to love with 
all one’s heart here. One’ grain of earnest, loyal, devoted, 
unselfish affection is enough to make the whole world home- 
like. To love another better than one’s self is to begin 
heaven here. The great lesson of all is that the Father’s 
mansions are within one’s own breast. Heaven is here; the 
world of hope, anticipation, feeling, is all here. We have it 
here first, if we have it at all—Fenelon. 


GOD'S LOVE REVEALED IN CHRIST 


The tears of Jesus are the pity of God. The gentleness 
of Jesus is the long-suffering of God. The tenderness of 
Jesus is the love of God. “He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father.”—Alexander Maclaren. 


GOD'S GREAT LOVE IN THE ATONEMENT 


Suppose a man is lying under sentence of death! 
Shrinking from the gallows-tree, he has sent off a petition 
for mercy; and waits the answer in anxious suspense. One 
day his ear catches rapid steps approaching his door—they 
stop there. The chain is dropped; the bolts are drawn; a 
messenger enters with his fate—on these lips, death or life. 
And the answer? Ah, the answer is that the sovereign pit- 
ies the criminal, but cannot pardon the crime. The blood 
deserts his cheeks; his hopes dashed to the ground, he 
wrings his hands, and gives himself up for lost. And now 
the messenger draws near; and, laying his hand kindly on 
the poor felon’s shoulder, tells him that there is one way by 


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Fig ath, 


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LOVE OF GOD 153 


which he may yet be saved—if the king’s son would change 
places with him, put these fetters of his on his own limbs 
and die in his room, that would satisfy justice, and set him 
_ free. Drowning men will catch at straws; not he at that. 

The king give up his son! the king’s son, the prince royal, 
the heir of the kingdom consent to die for a poor, obscure, 
guilty wretch like me? If there is no hope but that, there is 
no hope at all! Now fancy, if you can, his astonishment, 
sinking to incredulity and then rising into a paroxysm of 
joy, when the messenger says, “I am the king’s son; it 1s 
my own wish, and my father’s will, that I should die for 
you; for that purpose am I come, have I left the palace, and 
sought you in this dreary prison; take you the pardon and 
give me the fetters. In me shall the crime be punished; in 
you shall the criminal be saved. Escape! Behold, I set be- 
fore you an open door!” 

Such love never was shown by man, No. But greater 
love has been shown by God. He gave up His Son to death 
that we might not die but live-—Guthrie. 


GOD’S LOVE IS FOR ALL 


The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but 
for the wide world’s joy. The lowly pine on the moun- 
tain-top waves its sombre boughs, and cries, “Thou art my 
sun;” and the little meadow-violet lifts its cup of blue, and 
whispers with its perfumed breath, “Thou art my sun;” and 
the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind, and 
makes answer, “Thou art my sun.” So God sits effulgent 
in heaven, not for a favored few, but for the universe of 
life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may 
not look up with childlike confidence, and say, “My Father, 
thou art mine.’’—Beecher. 


GOD'S LOVE EXPRESSED IN CHRIST 


History’s noblest deed and record of love is in the self- 
devotion of one generous heathen, Pylades, who forfeited 
his life to save his friend; but “God commendeth his love to 


154. GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 
uatachin’ SRR var hela mNetN aeebr 2A eabess ced oh alooecdiriteiem ite Lado 


us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” 
You have not yet seen,” says a great writer and profound 
thinker, “the greatest gift of all—the HEartr of God, the 
love of his heart, the heart of his love. And will He in very 
deed show us that? Yes, unveil that cross, and see. It was 
His only mode of showing us his heart. It is infinite love 
laboring to reveal itself—agonizing to utter the fullness of 
infinite love. Apart from that act, a boundless ocean of 
love would have remained forever shut up and concealed in 
the heart of God; but now it has found an ocean-channel. 
Beyond this, he cannot go. Once and forever the proof has 
been given.—'God is love.’ ”»—Macduff. 


GOD'S LOVE THE KEY TO EVERYTHING 


We never know through what Divine mysteries of com- 
pensation the great Father of the universe may be carrying 
out His sublime plan; but those three words, ‘‘God is love” 
ought to contain, to every doubting soul, the solution of all 
things.—D. M. Craik. 


MEDITATE ON GOD'S LOVE 


Let us meditate on the love of God, who being supremely 
happy Himself, communicateth perfect happiness to us. 
Supreme happiness doth not make God forget us; shall the 
miserable comforts of this life make us forget Him?— 
James Saurin. 


GOD'S LOVE SURMOUNTS EVERYTHING 


You have nothing to do but simply to receive the everlast- 
ing love of God in Christ His Son, which was without you, 
which began before you, which flows forth independent of 
you, which is unchecked by all our sins, which triumphs 
over all our transgressions, and which will make us—love- 
less, selfish, hardened, sinful men—soft and tender and full 
of Divine perfection, by the communication of its own self. 
—Selected. 


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LOVE OF GOD tea 


GOD’S LOVE FOR SINNERS 


Pause, fellow-sinner, fellow man, before that wonderful 
Being that you find now in the manger, now on the cross; 
follow His wonderful footsteps; dwell on His words; hear 
His prayers; gaze on His tears,—nay, on His flowing blood, 
until you fully and firmly believe, never to doubt it, or for- 
get that God loves us when we do not love Him.—E. N. 
Kirk, 


GOD’S LOVE IS INFINITE 


Thou lovest like an infinite God when Thou lovest ; Thou 
movest heaven and earth to save Thy loved ones. Thou be- 
comest man, a babe, the vilest of men, covered with re- 
proaches, dying with infamy and under the pangs of the 
cross; all this is not too much for an infinite love—Fenelon. 


GOD HAD FOR THE ASKING ¥ 


’Tis heaven alone that is given away; 
’Tis only God may be had for the asking. 


—Lowell. 
EVERY WISH A PRAYER 
Every wish 
Is like a prayer—with God. 
—Browning. 


GOD OF NECESSITY IS LOVE 


God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love. 
—M. F. Tupper. 


LOVE KNOWS OUR WAY 


Our way is where God knows 
And Love knows where: 
We are in Love’s hand to-day. 
—Swinburne. 


156 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


PRAYING TO GOD IS PRAYING TO LOVE 


Thou canst not pray to God without praying to Love— 
Richard Garnett. 


ONE UNQUESTIONED TEXT 


One unquestioned text we read, 
All doubt beyond, all fear above; 
Nor crackling pile nor cursing creed 
Can burn or blot it—God is love. 
—Holmes. 


GOD'S LOVE GREATER THAN HIS POWER 


Love is God’s essence; power but his attribute : therefore 
his love is greater than his power.—Richard Garnett. 


GOD NEVER SLUMBERS 


The eternal Watcher never slumbers; His eyes never 
know a sleep.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


eg ee oe 


HOLINESS OF GOD 


GOD IS HOLY 


But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in 
all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye 
holy; for I am holy.—1 Peter 1:15, 16. 

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not 
look on iniquity—Heb. 1:13. 

Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for 
the Lord our God is holy.—Ps. 99:9. 

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about 
him; and they were full of eyes within; and they rest not 
day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
which was, and is, and is to come.—Rev. 4:8. 

For I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore sanctify 
yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for J am holy.—Lev. 11 :44. 

Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, 
and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for J, the Lord your 
God, am holy.—Lev. 19:2. 


GOD’S MORAL PERFECTION IS INFINITE ~ 


The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one at- 
tribute among others; it is rather a general term repre- 
senting the conception of his consummate perfection and 
total glory. It is his infinite moral perfection crowning his 
infinite intelligence and power. There is a glory of each 
attribute viewed abstractedly, and a glory of the whole 
together. The intellectual nature is the essential basis of the 
moral. Infinite moral perfection is the crown of the God- 
head. Holiness is the total glory thus crowned.—Hodge. 


157 


JUSTICE OF GOD 


GOD IS JUST 


Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?—Gen, 18:25. 

Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Al- 
mighty pervert judgment.—Job 34:12. 

The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will 
not at all acquit the wicked.—Nah. 1:3. 

And that will by no means clear the guilty—Exo. SA 

If I sin, then thou markest me, thou wilt not acquit me 
from mine iniquity.—Job 10:14. 

But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to 
truth, against them which commit such things.—Rom. 2:2. 

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; 
mercy and truth shall go before thy face—Ps. 89:14. 

He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are 
judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and 
right is he-—Deut. 32:4. 

But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to 
truth against them which commit such things—Rom, 2:2. 

Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy 
judgments.—Rev. 16:7. 

Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the 
Almighty pervert judgment—Job 34 :10-12. 

Be not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap.—Gal. 6:7. 


JUSTICE ONE ASPECT OF BENEVOLENCE 


Instead of turning away from the judgment of God as a 
blemish on His character, we ought to rejoice in it as an- 
other aspect of His benevolence. We must have in God the 
blooming valley full of beautiful flowers and with purling 

; 158 


JUSTICE OF GOD 159 


streams of grace, and also the dark-frowning crags of divine 
judgment, the very intensity of whose shadow implies an 
intensity of glory, for you never can get shadow without 
light. . . . Prostrate yourself before an engine, and the 


_ very qualities that make it a blessing make it an engine of 


destruction. God moves on a track of absolute and perfect 
equity and holiness, and the same qualities that insure that 
you would be borne forward into the eternal ages if: con- 
nected with God, make it sure that you would be ground to 
powder if you place yourself before the wheels of judg- 
ment.—A. T. Pierson. 


JUSTICE THE LOVING ANGER OF GOD 


Because I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded 
love, therefore I believe in a loving anger of His which will 
and must devour and destroy all which is decayed, mon- 
strous, abortive in His universe till all enemies shall be put 
under His feet, and God shall be all in all—Charles 
Kingsley. 


GOD'S JUSTICE ONLY PART OF HIS LOVE 


Many people have difficulty in harmonizing the justice of 
God and the love of God. God is Love, and nothing but 
love. There is no other element in His character. Properly 


understood, love is the sum of all-good. Love contains 


every virtue, and all virtues combined. Both the Old Tes- 
tament and the New sum up man’s whole moral duty in two 
commandments. The first commandment is to love God 
with all the strength and knowledge we have, and the second 


- is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love to God and man 


comprehends our whole moral duty, which Patil sums up in 


_ the one word love, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 


13:10). But love is analyzed by Paul, in that wonderful 
Thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians; and we learn that 
love, separated into its component parts, includes justice, 
mercy, forbearance, kindness, humility, and every other 


 -virtue. 


160 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


| The justice of God is only part of His love. Justice is 
{love punishing evil for the good of the universe. God’s love 
is shown as much in raining fire and brimstone on Sodom 
and Gomorrah as in pouring out the Holy Spirit on His 
disciples on the Day of Pentecost. Every action of God is 
prompted by Jove, and by love only. Justice is only part of 
His love-—J. Gilchrist Lawson. 


GOD'S LOVE AND JUSTICE ARE ONE 


God’s justice and love are one. Infinite justice must be 
infinite love. Justice is but another sign of love—F. W. 
Robertson. 


JUSTICE THE VICTORY OF GOD’S LOVE 


Justice is but the perseverance of God’s wisdom, the de- 
termination of His power, and the victory of His love.— 
James Hamilton. 


GOD IS KIND, BUT JUST 


God is kind; but within the limits of inexorable law. He 
is good, but you can take no liberties with Him; for back 
of His pity and kindness is the righteousness that is so 
exact, and that must be satisfied to the uttermost farthing — 
Jak Paxton: 


JUSTICE AND MERCY GOD'S TWO ARMS 


Justice and mercy are the two arms of God, which em- 
brace, bear, and govern the whole world: they are the two 
engines of the great Archimedes, which make heaven de- 
scend upon earth and earth mount to heaven. They are the 
bass and treble strings of the great lute of heaven, which 
make all the harmonies and tunable symphonies of this uni- 
verse. Now, as mercy is infinite, so is justice. The divine | 
essence holdeth these two perfections as the two scales of | 
the balance,—always equally poised—N. Caussin. 


JUSTICE OF GOD 161 


THE NECESSITY OF GOD'S JUSTICE 


The law is obligated to punish the transgressor as much 
as the transgressor is obligated to obey the law—law has no 
option. Justice has but one function. The necessity of 
penalty is as great as the necessity of obligation. The law 
itself is under law; that is, it is under the necessity of its 
own nature; and therefore the only possible way whereby a 
transgressor can escape the penalty of the law, is for a sub- 
stitute to endure it for him. The deep substrata and base of 
all God’s ethical attributes are eternal law and impartial jus- 


tice—Prof. Shedd. 


GOD PUNISHES THE UNFAITHFUL 


As a master supplies his faithful servants with everything 
necessary, and takes care that nothing be wanting, but, if 
they are unfaithful, he reverses his treatment of them;. 
even so God, the true owner of the earth and all that dwell 
‘therein.—Cawdray. 


GOD’S JUSTICE MISUNDERSTOOD 


Take a straight stick, and put it into the water, and it 
will seem crooked. Why? Because we look upon it 
through two mediums,—air and water. Thus the proceed- 
ings of God in his justice, which in themselves are straight, 
without the least obliquity, seem unto us crooked. That 
wicked men should prosper, and good men be afflicted; that 
the Israelites should make the bricks, and the Egyptians 
dwell in the houses; that servants should ride on horseback, 
and princes go on foot,—these are things that make the best 
Christians stagger in their judgments. And why? But be- 
cause they look upon God’s proceedings through a double 
medium,—of flesh and spirit; that so all things seem to go 


‘cross, though, indeed, they are right enough. And hence 


it is that God’s proceedings in his justice are not so well dis- . 
cerned, the eyes of man alone being not competent judges 
thereof.—Spencer. | 


162 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD'S JUSTICE NOT DEBATABLE 


Though, in debating with regard to theories, it be lawful 
to say whether this or that is consistent with the Divine 
attributes, yet, when we find that God has actually done any- 
thing, all question about its justice, wisdom, and benevo- 
lence, is forever out of place—Nehemiah Adams. 


GOD’S TEMPORAL JUDGMENTS ARE CORRECTIVE 


As water is deepest where it is the stillest ; so, where God 
is most silent in threatening, and patient in sparing, there he 
is most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge. And 
therefore the fewer the judgments be that are poured forth 
upon the wicked in this life, the more are reserved in store 
for them in the life to come.—Cawdray. 


THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD 


Goodness and severity are elements of a perfect character 
even among men. Without goodness, the character is stern 
and inflexible; it repels instead of winning. There may be 
certain qualities which command our respect in a Draco, 
who ordains death as the penalty for every trifling violation 
of the law, or in a Brutus, who, with tearless eye, gives 
orders in the way of duty for the execution of his sons; but 
from characters of such untempered austerity, sympathy 
and affection recoil. On the other hand, without severity 
goodness degenerates into weakness; into that moral pliancy 
which, under the name of good-nature, has often made men 
“consent” easily to the enticement of sinners, and has given 
them nothing in return but the insipid reputation of having 
been enemies to none but themselves. In a perfect charac- 
ter, if such existed among men, you would see the counter- 
-balancing powers of goodness and severity held in exact 
equilibrium. And such, the Word of God assures us, is the 
character of Him with whom we have to do—Behold, 
therefore, the goodness and severity of God.” 

A very beautiful illustration of this twofold element of 


JUSTICE OF GOD 163 


the Divine character may be drawn from nature. “God is. 
light,’ says the Scripture. Philosophers have discovered 
that light, though apparently so simple a substance, is com- 
pounded of seven different rays. It may be said to have two 
main ingredients: the somber rays (blue, indigo, violet) ; the 
bright rays (orange, red, yellow, green). Both classes of 
rays are essential to the delicacy and purity of the sub- 
stance. Without the somber rays, light would be a glare,— 
the eyeball would ache beneath it; without the bright rays, 
light would approximate to the nature of darkness, and lose 
the gay smile which lights up the face of nature and twin-- 
kles on the sea. Similarly, the holiness, justice, and truth 
of God (attributes which wear an awful aspect to the sin- 
ner) are elements of His nature as essential to its per- 
fectness as mercy, love, and goodness. Suppose in Him, for 
a moment, no stern defiance against moral evil, but an al- 
lowance and admission of it, and you degrade Jehovah to 
the level of a pagan deity, honored with impure rites, and 
forming His worshipers on the model of His own licen- 
tiousness. Suppose in Him, on the other hand, an absence 
of love, and you supplant the very being of God, you over- 
cloud the light, and convert it into its antagonist darkness.; 
for “God is love.” But combine both righteousness and 
love, intensified to the highest conceivable degree, and you 
are then possessed of the Scriptural idea of the Most High. 
“Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God.”— 
Goulburn. 


GRACE OF GOD 


NEED OF GOD’S GRACE Pe 


It (grace) is God taking the sinner by the hand, and 
wishing to teach him to walk. We are like little children. 
We do not know how to walk on the road to heaven; we 
stagger, we fall, unless the hand of God is always ready 
to support us. 

The grace of God helps us to walk, and supports us. He 
is as necessary to us as crutches are to a lame man.— 
Vianney. a 


DEPENDENCE ON GOD’S GRACE 


Let the lily be exposed to the scorching sun, and deprived 
of the refreshing dew, and its leaves will droop and die. 
Just so the Christian: let him be exposed to the scorching 
heat of indwelling corruption, the world’s cares, and Satan’s 
wiles, without the dew of God’s grace, he will not advance 
in holiness of heart and life. But when that descends, his 
leaves stand erect, and, like the lily, his growth is rapid. In- 
tegrity strengthens, benevolence expands, holiness opens in 
all its lily-like loveliness, and in due time the plant is re- 
moved to the paradise of God, there to bloom in unfading 
beauty.—Jackson. 


WE NEED DAILY GRACE 


The acts of breathing which I performed yesterday will 
not keep me alive to-day; I must continue to breathe afresh 
every moment, or animal life ceases. In like manner, yes- 
terday’s grace and spiritual strength must be renewed, and 
the Holy Spirit must continue to breathe on my soul, from 
moment to moment, in order to my enjoying the consola- 

164 


GRACE OF GOD 165 


tions, and to my working the works of God.—Toplady, 
1740-1778. | 
GOD'S GRACE CONTINUOUS 


Our preservation from evil and perseverance in good is 
a most free unmerited favor, the effect of God’s renewed 
grace in the course of our lives. Without His special assist- 
ance, we should every hour forsake Him, and provoke Him 
to forsake us. As the iron cannot ascend or hang in the air 
longer than the virtue of the loadstone draws it, so our affec- 
tions cannot ascend to those glorious things that are above 
without the continually attracting power of grace.—Bates, 
1625-1699. 


GOD’S GRACE NEVER IMPAIRED 


God is ever giving to His children, yet hath not the less. 
His riches are imparted, not impaired: like the sun that still 
shines, yet hath not the less light——Watson, 1696. 


GOD’S GRACE MANIFESTED DAILY 


All our power for sacred performances is wholly from 
another; “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think 
anything.” To think, we suppose, is an easy thing; but un- 
less God help, it is too hard for us. God gave Israel their 
manna every day, or they could not have subsisted. God 
must give us fresh supplies of His Spirit in every duty, or 
they cannot be rightly performed. The greatest fulness of 
a Christian is not the fulness of a fountain, but of a vessel, 
which, because it is always letting out, must be always taking 
in. The conduit, which is continually running, must be al- 
ways receiving from the river. The Christian’s disburse- 
ments are great and constant; therefore such must his in- 
comes from God be, or he will quickly prove a bankrupt.— 
Swinnock, 1673. 


TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD'S GRACE _ 


What man can re-create himself? I go, in January, into 
my garden. This plum tree has ceased growing. So has 


166 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


that pear tree—and so have all these other trees. And my 
flowers, to all appearance, are dead. And I propose a resur- 
rection. It may be that by building a shelter around one 
single plant or tree, I can thaw out the soil, and by artificial 
heat wake up the dormant bud, and bring spring into it. 
But what man can enclose his whole garden, and bring sum- 
mer into that in the middle of winter? And if a man can’t 
do this with his garden, who can do it with his whole farm? 
It is a task that defies all human power. . Not till God calls 
the sun, and it comes hastening back, full of vivific powers 
and fruitful influences—not till then does the soil heave, and 
the root swell, and the leaf shoot forth, and the bud pro- 
trude, and the blossom exhale, and all things show that more 
than a man, with his artificial appliances, is at work. 

Now, with regard to a man’s character, it is true that, so 
far as any special disposition is concerned, the power of the 
will to do right or wrong is undoubted. You can correct a 
single habit; but the great outlying domain of the soul, with 
its multitudinous habits, formed and forming—what man 
can look upon this and say, “by the power of my own voli- 
tion, I will bring up good where there is evil; love shall rule 
where selfishness reigns”? There is not one single moment 
when a man does not run away from himself; when his dis- 
position does not break loose from his will. It is not till 
some influence from God is shed down upon a man, vivify- 
ing him as summer vivifies the soil, that he feels, “I have 
hope.” Therefore it is said, “Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling,” as a man must that works in such 
a crater as the human heart; “for it is God which worketh 
in you.”’—Beecher. 


PROFUSION OF GOD’S GRACE 


The grace of God is marked by the affluence which char- 
acterizes all His works. What abundance in that sun which 
has shone so many thousand years, and yet presents no 
appearance of exhaustion, no sign of decay! What abund- 
ance of stars bespangle the sky; of leaves clothe the forest; 
of raindrops fall in the shower; of dews sparkle on the 


GRACE OF GOD 167 


grass; of snow-flakes within the winter hills; of flowers 
adorn the meadow; of living creatures that, walking on the 
ground, or playing in the waters, or burrowing in the soil, 
or dancing in the sunbeams, or flying in the air, find a home 
in every element—but that red fire in which, type of hell, 
all beauty perishes and all life expires! 

This lavish profusion of life, and forms, and beauty, in 
nature, is an emblem of the affluence of grace, of God’s 
saving, sanctifying grace. In Christ all fullness dwells. We 
are complete in Him. There is in His blood sufficient virtue 
to discharge all the sins of a guilty world, and in His Spirit 
sufficient power to cleanse the foulest and break the hardest 
heart. Ye are not straitened in me, says God, but in your- 
selves. Try me herewith, He says—ask, seek, knock! Who 
does will find that it is only a faint image of the plenitude 
of grace we behold in that palace-scene where the king, 
looking kindly on a lovely suppliant, bends from his throne 
to extend his golden scepter, and says, ‘““What is thy petition, 
and what is thy request, Queen Esther, and it shall be given 
thee to the half of my kingdom ?”’—-Guthrie. 


GRACE IS UNMERITED FAVOR 


The way to heaven lies, not over a toll-bridge, but over 
a free-bridge; even the unmerited grace of God in Christ 
Jesus. 

Grace finds us beggars, and always leaves us debtors.— 
Toplady, 1740-1778. 


GRACE OF GOD FOR SINNERS 


Now, the apostle says, “With your guilt, with your 
trouble, go before God.” He knows all. What nobody else 
knows, He knows. He knows what even the wife of your 
bosom does not know. He knows what has never been 
divulged to any living soul. Wicked thoughts and inten- 
tions in connection with your business, which perhaps no 
man knows except yourself, He knows. And when you 
feel an impulse to go before God, do not say, “I would 


168 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


go; but that crime.” He knew of that crime before He 
invited you to go to Him. Do not say, “I would go; but 
that unwashed lust.” He has known that lust from the 
beginning. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes 
of Him with whom we have to do.” “Let us, therefore,” 
says the apostle, “come boldly to the throne of grace, that 
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help.” Grace to 
help—that is it: grace to help you out of your sin. Let no 
one, then, who has a sense of his sinfulness, who is truly re- 
pentant, and who is striving to do better, hesitate to go to 
God, saying, “Have mercy upon me, and help me.”— 
Beecher. 


VICTORY THROUGH GRACE 


The moral impotence in men to vanquish their lusts, 
though it will be no apology at the day of judgment, will 
discourage them from making resistance: for who will 
attempt an impossibility ? Despair relaxes the active powers, 
cuts the nerves of our endeavors, and blunts the edge of 
industry. ’Tis related of the West Indians, that upon the 
first incursion of the Spaniards into their country, they 
tamely yielded to their tyranny; for seeing them clad in 
armor which their spears could not pierce, they fancied 
them to be the children of the sun, invulnerable and im- 
mortal. But an Indian carrying a Spaniard over the water, 
resolved to try whether he were mortal, and plunged him 
into the river so long that he was drowned. From that 
experiment they took courage, and resolved to kill their 
enemies, who were capable of dying, and recover their dear 
liberty, lost by such a foolish conceit. Thus men will 
languish in a worse servitude if they fancy the lusts of the 
flesh, their intimate enemies, to be inseparable. Fear con- 
geals the spirits, and disables from noble enterprises, which 
hope persuades, and courage executes. Now we have an 
army of conquerors to encourage us in the spiritual war 
with the flesh, the world, and Satan, enemies in combina- 
tion against us. How many saints have preserved them- 
selves unspotted from the most alluring temptations! They 
were not statues, without sensible faculties, they were not 


GRACE OF GOD 169 


without a conflict of carnal passions, but by the Holy Spirit 
subdued them; and though some obtained a clearer victory 
than others, yet all were victorious by divine grace.—Salter. 


ENABLING POWER OF GOD’S GRACE 


The Gospel supposeth a power going along with it, and 
that the Holy Spirit of God works upon the minds of men, 
to quicken, and excite, and assist them in their duty. And 
if it were not so, the exhortations of preachers would be 
nothing else but a cruel and bitter mocking of sinners, and 
an ironical insulting over the misery and weakness of poor 
creatures; and for ministers to preach, or people to hear 
sermons, upon other terms, would be the vainest expense 
of time and the idlest thing we do all the week; and all 
our dissuasives from sin and exhortations to holiness and 
a good life, and vehement persuasions of men to strive to 
get to heaven and to escape hell, would be just as if one 
should urge a blind man, by many reasons and arguments 
taken from the advantages of sight and the comfort of that 
sense and the beauty of external objects, by all means to 
open his eyes, and to behold the delights of nature, to see 
his way and to look to his steps, and should upbraid him, 
and be very angry with him, for not doing so.— Lillotson, 
1630-1694. : 


BOUNTIFULNESS OF GOD'S GRACE 


An indigent philosopher at the court of Alexander sought 
relief at the hand of that sovereign, and received an order 
on his treasurer for any sum he should ask. He imme- 
diately demanded ten thousand pounds. The treasurer de- 
murred to the extravagant amount; but Alexander replied, 
“Tet the money be instantly paid. I am delighted with this 
philosopher’s way of thinking: he has done me a singular 
honor. By the largeness of his request, he shows the high 
idea he has conceived of my wealth and munificence.” God 
is honored in like manner—Foster. 


170 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD’S GRACE BESTOWED DAILY * 


A man says to his agent, “I want you to go on a business 
tour for me. First go to Buffalo. Here is the money, and 
here are the directions that you will need while there. 
Thence go to Cleveland, and there you will find remittances 
and further directions. When you get to Cincinnati you will 
find other remittances and other directions. At St. Louis 
you will find others; and at New Orleans still others.” 
“But,” says the agent, “suppose when [ get to Cleveland, or 
any of the other places, I should not find anything?” He 
is so afraid that he will not, that he asks the man to give 
him money and directions for the whole tour before he 
starts. “No,” says the man, “it will be sufficient if you 
have the money and directions you need for each place 
when you get to it: and when you do get to it you will find 
them there.” 

Now God sends us in the same way. He says, “Here is 
your duty for to-day, and the means with which to do it. 
To-morrow you will find remittances and further directions ; 
next week you will find other remittances and other direc- 
tions; next month you will find others; and next year still 
others. I will be with you at all times, and will see that 
you have strength for every emergency.’’—Beecher. 


Suppose I were to set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusaiem, 
and before I started, were to go to Brown Brothers & Co., 
and obtain letters of credit for the cities of London, Jericho, 
etc. Then, with these papers, which a child might destroy, 
which would be but ashes in the teeth of flame, which a 
thousand chances might take from me, I should go on with 
confidence and cheer, saying to myself, “As soon as I come 
to London I shall be in funds. I have a letter in my pocket 
from Brown Brothers & Co. which will give me five hun- 
dred dollars there; and in the other cities to which I am 
bound I shall find similar supplies, all at my command, 
through the agency of these magic papers and pen strokes 
of these enterprising men.” But suppose that, instead of this 
confidence, I were to sit down on shipboard, and go to tor- 


GRACE OF GOD 171 


menting myself in this fashion—“Now, what am I to do 
when I get to London? I have no money, and how do I 
know that these bits of paper which I have with me mean 
anything, or will amount to anything? What shall I do? 
I am afraid I shall starve in the strange city to which | am 
going.” I should be a fool, you say; but should I be half 
the fool that that man is, who, bearing the letters of credit 
of the Eternal God, yet goes fearing all his way, cast down 
and doubting whether he shall ever get safe through his 
journey? No fire, no violence, nor any chance, can destroy 
the cheques of the Lord, When He says, “I will never 
leave thee, nor forsake thee,’ and, “My grace shall be 
sufficient for thee,” believe it; and no longer dshonor your 
God by withholding from Him the confidence which you 
freely accord to Brown Brothers & Co.—Beecher. 


OVERCOMING GRACE OF GOD 


Many people are afraid to embrace religion for fear 
they shall not succeed in maintaining it. 

Does the spring say, “I will not come unless I can bring 
all fruits and sheaves under my wings?” No. She casts 
down loving glances in February, and in March she ven- 
tures near in mild days, but is beaten back and overthrown 
by storm and wind. Yet she returns, and finally yields the 
earth to April, far readier for life than she found it. The 
rains are still cold, but the grass is growing green, and the 
buds are swelling. In May the air is yet chilly, but it has 
the odor of flowers, and every day grows warmer till the 
delicious June, when all is bloom and softness, and even 
the storms have nourishment in them. Then come the 
glowing July and the fervid August, followed by the glori- 
ous autumn of harvest and victory: 

And shall nature do so much, while we dare not attempt 
to overcome the coldness and deadness of our hearts, and 
to fill them with the summer of love? 

When stars, first created, start forth upon their vast 
circuits, not knowing their way, if they were conscious and 
sentient, they might feel hopeless of maintaining their revo- 


172 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


lutions and orbits, and despair in the face of coming ages. 
But, without hands or arms, the sun holds them. Without 
cords or bands the solar king drives them unharnessed on 
their mighty rounds without a single misstep, and will bring 
them, in the end, to their bound without a wanderer. Now, 
if the sun can do this—the sun, which is but a thing itself, 
driven and held—shall not He who created the heavens, and 
gave the sun his power, be able to hold us by the attraction 
of His heart, the strength of His hands, and the omnip- 
otence of His affectionate will?—Bertram. 


TRANSFORMATIONS WROUGHT BY GRACE 


In nature there is hardly a stone that is not capable of 
crystallizing into something purer and brighter than its 
normal state. Coal, by a slightly different arrangement of 
its particles, is capable of becoming the radiant diamond. 
The slag cast out from the furnace as useless waste forms 
into globular masses of radiating crystals. From tar and 
pitch the loveliest colors are now manufactured. The very 
mud of the road, trampled under foot as the type of all 
impurity, can be changed by chemical art into metals and 
gems of surpassing beauty. And so the most unpromising 
materials, from the most worthless moral rubbish that men 
cast out and despise, may be converted by the Divine al- 
chemy into the gold of the sanctuary, and made jewels fit 
for the mediatorial crown of the Redeemer. Let the case 
of Mary Magdalene, of John Newton, of John Bunyan, of 
thousands more, encourage those who are still in the gall of 
bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Seek to be subjected 
to the same purifying process: lay yourselves open to the 
same spiritual influences ; yield yourselves up into the hands 
of the Spirit to become His finished and exquisite workman- 
ship. Seek diligently a saving and sanctifying union with 
Christ through faith; and He will perfect that which con- 
cerneth you, and lay your stones with fair colors. “Though 
ye have lien among the pots, ye shall yet be as the wings 
of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow 
gold.”—Macmillan. 


GRACE OF GOD 173 


ALL GOOD FLOWS FROM GOD’S GRACE 


Day and night, the tides are rising along our shores, 
filling bay and estuary, silently for the most part, yet surely. 
The power that draws them resides afar off in the heavenly 
bodies, and is not seen nor noticed, but only inferred. All 
the goodness of men, their generous impulses, their loves 
and faiths and inspirations of purity, their zeal and en- 
thusiasm in self-denial and devotion—that great human tide 
of goodness which is moving in upon the human heart—is 
derived from God, who, afar off, silent as the moon in 
summer nights, is drawing all men unto Him.—Beecher. 


GODS GRACE IS FOR ALL 


The truth of the bountifulness and largeness of God’s 
grace and goodness is true for everybody, provided every- 
body will put himself in a relation to take it. The reason why 
the sun produces in one place geraniums, camellias, azaleas, 
all forms of exquisite flowers, and does not produce them in 
another place, is not in the sun. The cause of the differ- 
ence is in the use to which you put the sun. It shines on 
the south side of my barn, and what does it produce there? 
A warm spot, where chickens and cows gather. It shines 
on the south side of my neighbor’s barn, and what does it 
produce there? Flowers and grapes. What is the reason 
of the difference? Does the sun change? No, but it is 
put to different uses. It is just the same sun, with just 
’ the same vivific power to all; but its effects are different 
when it is differently employed. In one man’s hands it 
amounts to nothing, because he does not make any use of it; 
but in another man’s hands it amounts to a great deal, 
because he does make use of it, and makes it do a great 
deal for him. The nature of God is the same to all men, 
but the effects are not the same on all men; because they 
do not all put it to the same uses.—H. W. Beecher, 


1%4 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD CAN SUPPLY EVERY NEED 


Men do not avail themselves of the riches of God’s grace. 
They love to nurse their cares, and seem as uneasy with- 
out some fret as an old friar would be without his hair 
girdle. They are commanded to cast their cares upon the 
Lord; but, even when they attempt it, they do not fail to 
catch them up again, and think it meritorious to walk 
burdened. They take God’s ticket to heaven, and then put 
their baggage on their shoulders, and tramp, tramp, the 
whole way there afoot.—Beecher. | 


GRACE NOT ALL GIVEN AT ONCE 


The heart of every believer is like a vessel with a narrow 
neck, which, being cast into the sea, is not filled at the first 
easily, but by reason of the strait passage receiveth water 
drop by drop. Thus God giveth unto us even a sea of 
mercy, but the same on our part is apprehended and re- 
ceived by little and little: we go from strength to strength, 
from grace to grace, and from one degree of virtue to 
another.—Boys, 1560-1643. 


GOD’S GRACE MORE THAN ENOUGH 


There is in God not only a sufficiency, but a redundancy; 
He is not only full as a vessel, but as a spring. Other 
things can no more fill the soul than a mariner’s breath 
can fill the sails of a ship: but in God is a cornucopia, an 
infinite fullness; He hath enough to fill the angels, therefore 
enough to fill us—Watson, 1696. 


Go and ransack thy heart, Christian, from one end to the 
other, find out thy wants, acquaint thyself with all thy 
weaknesses, and set them before the Almighty, as the widow 
her empty vessels before the prophet; hadst thou more than 
thou canst bring thou mayst have them all filled—Gurnall, 
1617-1679. 


GRACE OF GOD 175 


EASY FOR GOD TO SUPPLY EVERY NEED 


It is equally. easy for God to supply our greatest as our 
smallest wants, to carry our heaviest as our lightest bur- 
den—just as it is as easy for the great ocean to bear on 
her bosom a ship of war with all its guns and crew aboard, 
as a fisherman’s boat, or the tiniest craft that floats, falling 
and rising on her swell.—Guthrie. 


MAN NOTHING WITHOUT GOD’S GRACE 


Alas, O Lord, what am I when left to myself but a dry 
. parched ground, which, being rent on every side, witnesses 
its thirst for rain from heaven, but which in the meantime 
is dispersed by the wind and reduced to dust——Francis de 


Sales. 
MAN HELPLESS WITHOUT GOD’S GRACE 


God is a sun, which, though but one, is sufficient to 
enlighten and vivify a whole world——NMichel le Faucheur. 
GOD’S GRACE SUFFICIENT FOR ALL 


As the earth can produce nothing unless it is fertilized 
by the sun, so we can do nothing without the grace of God. 


—Vianney. 


MERCY OF GOD 


GOD’S MERCY GREATER THAN MAN’S SINS 


You cannot believe too much in God’s mercy. You 
cannot expect too much at His hands. He is “able to do 
“exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” No 
sin is so great but that, coming straight from it, a repentant 
sinner may hope and believe that all God’s love will be 
lavished upon him, and the richest of God’s gifts granted 
to his desires. Even if our trangression be aggravated by 
a previous life of godliness, and have given the enemies 
great occasion to blaspheme, as David did, yet David’s peni- 
tence may in our souls lead on to David’s hope, and the 
answer will not fail us. Let no sin, however dark, however 
repeated, drive us to despair of ourselves, because it hides 
from us our loving Savior. Though beaten back again 
and again by the surge of our passions and sins, like some 
poor shipwrecked sailor sucked back with every retreating 
wave and tossed about in the angry surf, yet keep your 
face towards the beach where there is safety, and you will 
struggle through it all, and, though it were but on some 
floating boards and broken pieces of the ship, will come 
safe to land. He will uphold you with His Spirit, and take 
away the weight of sin that would sink you, by His for- 
giving mercy, and bring you out of all the weltering waste 
of waters to the solid shore-—Maclaren. 


GOD ABUNDANT IN MERCY 


There is as great an ability in God, when we are in need 
of new mercies, as there was when He gave former ones; 
nay, as much as there was from eternity. He is not a God 
whose arm is shortened, that is not what He was, or shall 

176 


MERCY OF GOD 177 


ever cease to be what He is: “Is My hand shortened at 
all that I cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver?” 
He is always, “I am that I am.” There is no diminution 
of light in the sun no more that there was at the first 
moment of its creation, and the last man upon earth shall 
enjoy as much of it as we do now. No more does the 
Father of lights lose by imparting it to others. Thus we 
light many candles at a torch, yet it burns never the dimmer. 
Standing waters may be drawn dry, but a fountain cannot. 
God is a spring, this day and to-morrow, Jehovah un- 
changeable. The God of Isaac is not like Isaac, that had 
one blessing and no more; He has as much now as He had 
the first moment that mercy streamed from Him to His 
creature, and the same for as many as shall believe in 
Christ to the end of the world; nay, the more we receive 
from God in a way of faith, the more God has for us. A 
believer’s harvest for present mercies is his seed-time for 
more. The more mercies he reaps, the more hopes of 
future mercy he has. God’s mercies, when full-blown, seed 
again and come up thicker. Can the creature want more 
than the Everlasting Fountain can supply? Can the crea- 
ture’s indigency be greater than God’s sufficiency? What 
an irrational way of arguing was that: “He smote the 
rock that the waters gushed out; can He give bread also? 
can He provide for His people?” as if He that filled their 
cup could not spread their table, as if He that had a hidden 
cellar for their drink had not a secret and as full a cupboard 
for their meat. Do we want mercies for soul and body? 
Look to the Rock whence former mercies were hewn! the 
same fullness can supply again——Charnock, 1628-1680, 


GOD’S MERCY MAN’S ONLY HOPE 


If I were to live to the world’s end, and do all the good 
that man can do, I must still cry, “Mercy! Why then 
should I be unwilling or afraid to die this moment, with a 
sense of God’s pardoning: love, when I can have no other 
claim to salvation if I were to live forever ?—Thomas 
Adams. 


178 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


ALL ARE IN NEED OF GOD’S MERCY 


Though we have sinned less than others, we cannot be 
saved by merit; even as, thank God, though we have sinned 
more than others, we may be saved by mercy. How idle to 
talk of other men being greater sinners than we are—to 
flatter and deceive ourselves with that! He drowns as 
surely who has his head beneath one inch of water, as he 
-who, with a millstone hung round his neck, has sunk a 
hundred fathoms down. Let the strain of the tempest come, 
and the ship that has one bad link in her cable, as certainly 
goes ashore to be dashed to pieces on the rocks, as another 
that has twenty bad. It is, no doubt, by repeated strokes 
of the woodman’s ax that the oak, bending slowly to fate, 
bows its proud head and falls to the ground, and it is by 
long dropping that water hollows the hardest stone. But 
those who speak of great and little, of few or many sins, 
seem to forget that man’s ruin was the work of one moment, 
and of one sin. The weight of only one sin sank this great 
world into perdition; and now all of us, all men, lie under 
the same sentence of condemnation. Extinguishing every 
hope of salvation through works, and sounding as ominous 
of evil in men’s ears as the cracking of ice beneath our feet, 
or the roar of an avalanche, or the grating of a keel on the 
sunken reef, or the hammer that wakens the felon from 
dreams of life and liberty, that sentence is this—‘‘Cursed 
is every one that continueth not in all things written in the 
book of the law to do them.” 

Such is our position; and instead of shutting our eyes 
to it, like the foolish ostrich that hides her head in the bush 
when the hunters are at her heels, it is well to know, and to 
face it—Guthrie. 


VILEST SINNERS MAY CLAIM MERCY 


There are many who, being conscious of wickedness and 
not being Christians, do not see why they should ask 
Divine succor. There are many who are conscious of being 
bound by evil, and they fain would break away from it. 


MERCY OF GOD 179 


If only they were Christians, and in the Church, God would 
help them; but they are sinners, and out of the Church, 
and they dare not go to God. Many a man would fain 
break away from the cup, but he knows that his own 
strength is insufficient; and as he is not a Christian, as 
he has made his investments in evil, he does not feel that 
he has a right to draw upon the bank of Divine mercy. 
He keeps no account there, and he has no reason to think 
that his check will be honored there if he presents it. 

Now, there is not a human being in or out of the Church 
who is not an object of Divine compassion and divine love. 
God may have the love of complacency when His Spirit 
shall have drawn you more and more into the lines and 
lineaments of His own blessed beauty; but God is love, 
and He will not wait for your turning before He loves you. 
God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for 
it, and to die for it while yet it was in sin—yea, and at 
enmity to Him. God’s love precedes all reformation. And 
there is no man—not a drunkard, not a gambler, not a thief, 
not a person that is filled full of passions and appetites— 
who has not a right, to-day, now, here, in his heart, to look 
up and say, “God help me!’ Your sinfulness is not a 
reason why you should keep away from God. It is the very 
reason why’ you should go to Him. He is to your soul 
what the physician is to your body. When your body is 
racked with pains, or is swollen with disease, you go to the 
physician that he may heal you. And so, the consciousness 
of your sin, and of the hatefulness of it, is the very reason 
why you should go to God.—Beecher. 


GLORY OF GOD MANIFEST IN HIS MERCY 


As the Creator and Preserver of men, Thou art gloriously 
manifest; but O! how much more gloriously art Thou 
revealed as reconciling ungrateful enemies to Thyself by 
the blood of Thy eternal Son. Here Thy beneficence dis- 
plays its brightest splendor; here Thou dost fully display 
Thy most magnificent titles; THe Lorp, THE Lorp Gop, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in good- 


180 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


ness. How unsearchable are Thy ways, and Thy paths past 
. finding out !—Elizabeth Rowe. 


GOD’S MERCY CONTINUOUS 


It is by no means pleasant when reading an interesting 
article in your magazine to find yourself pulled up short 
with the ominous words, “to be continued.’ Yet they are 
words of good cheer if applied to other matters. What a 
comfort to remember that the Lord’s mercy and loving- 
kindness is fo be continued! Much as we have experienced 
in the long years of our pilgrimage, we have by no means 
outlived eternal love. Providential goodness is an endless 
chain, a stream which follows the pilgrim, a wheel per- 
petually revolving, a star forever shining, and leading us 
to the place where He is who was once a babe in Bethle- 
hem. All the volumes which record the doings of Divine 
grace are but part of a series to be continued.—Spurgeon, 


GOD DELIGHTS IN MERCY 


Joy is the highest testimony that can be given to our 
complacency in anything or person; love to joy is as fuel 
to the fire; if love lay little fuel of desires on the heart, 
then the flame of joy that comes thence will not be great. 
Now God’s joy is great in pardoning poor sinners that 
come in; therefore His affection is great in the offer 
thereof. It is made the very motive that prevails with 
God to pardon sinners, “Because He delighteth in mercy.” 
Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and 
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? 
He retaineth not His anger forever, for He delighteth in 
mercy. Ask why the fisher stands all night with his angle 
in the river; he will tell you, because he delights in the 
sport. Well, you now know the reason why God stands 
so long waiting on sinners, months, years, preaching to 
them; it is that He may be gracious in pardoning them, and 
in that act delight Himself. Princes very often pardon 
traitors to please others more than themselves, or else it 
would never be done; but God doth it chiefly to delight 


MERCY OF GOD 181 


and glad His own merciful heart. Hence the business 
Christ came about (which was no other but to reconcile 
sinners to God) is called “the pleasure of the Lord” (Isa. 
liii. 10) —Gurnall, 1617-1679. 


\GOD’S OFFER OF MERCY 


If a judge of an assize should say to a felon, or some 
malefactor in the gaol, “Confess but your faults and become 
an honest man, I will pardon you; and not only so, but you 
shall be made a justice of peace, or some great man, where- 
by you shall have power to judge and examine others!” 
surely he would, upon this promise, be moved quickly to 
confess the felony and forego his theft. Thus it is that the 
Judge of all the world makes great tenders of mercy, that 
if a sinner will truly and from his heart confess his sins, 
and resolve to leave them, he shall have pardon; and not 
only so, but he shall be made a king and priest unto God 
the Father, an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ 
Jesus.—Hill. 

ALWAYS MORE TO FOLLOW 


A benevolent person gave Mr. Rowland Hill a hundred 
pounds to dispense to a poor minister, and thinking it was 
too much to send him all at once, Mr: Hill forwarded five 
pounds in a letter, with simply these words within the 
envelope, “More to follow.” Ina few days’ time, the good 
man received another letter by the post—and letters by the 
post were rarities in those days; this second messenger 
contained another five pounds, with the same motto, “And 
more to follow.” <A day or two after came a third and a 
fourth, and still the same promise, “And more to follow.” 
Till the whole sum had been received the astonished minister 
was made familiar with the cheering words, “And more 
to follow.” : 

Every blesing that comes from God is sent with the 
selfsame message, “And more to follow.” “I forgive you 
your sins, but there’s more to follow.” “I justify you in 
the righteousness of Christ, but there’s more to follow.” 
“T adopt you into My family, but there’s more to follow.” 


182 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


“I educate you for heaven, but there’s more to follow.” 
- “T give you grace upon grace, but there’s more to follow.” 
“TI have helped you even to old age, but there’s still more 
to follow.” “I will uphold you in the hour of death, and 
as you are passing into the world of spirits My mercy shall 
still continue with you, and when you land in the world to 
come there shall still be MorRE TO FOLLOW.”—sSpurgeon. 


GOD’S MERCY EXHAUSTLESS 


I know of a father who, after his son came back the 
fourth time, said, “No! I forgave you three times, but I 
will never forgive you again.” And the son went off and 
died. But God takes back His children the thousandth 
time as cheerfully as the first. As easily as with my hand- 
kerchief I strike the dust off this book, God will wipe out 
all our sins. 

Oh, this mercy of God! Iam told it is an ocean. Then 
I place on it four swift-sailing craft, with compass, and 
charts, and choice rigging, and skilful navigators, and I 
tell them to launch away, and discover for me the extent of 
this ocean. That craft puts out in one direction, and sails 
to the north; this to the south; this to the east; this to the 
west. They crowd on all their canvas, and sail ten thousand 
years, and one day come up to the harbor of heaven; and I 
shout to them from the beach, “Have you found the shore?” 
and they answer, “No shore to God’s mercy.” Swift 
angels, dispatched from the throne, attempt to go across 
it. For a million years they fly and fly; but then come back 
and fold their wings at the foot of the throne, and cry, 


“No shore! no shore to God’s mercy !’—Talmage. 


DEPTHS OF MERCY “ 


Depth of mercy!—can there be 
Mercy still reserved for me? 
Can my God His wrath forbear? 
Me, the chief of sinners, spare? 
—Charles Wesley. 


es re 


MERCY OF GOD 183 


GREAT SINNERS FORGIVEN 


Oh, who can read a Manasseh, a M agdalene, a Saul; yea, 
an Adam (who undid himself, and a whole world with 
him), in the roll of pardoned sinners, and yet turn away 
from the promise, out of a fear that there is not mercy 
enough in it to serve his turn? These are as land-marks, 


that show what large boundaries mercy hath set to itself, 


and how far it hath gone, even to take into its pardoning 
arms the greatest sinners, that make not themselves in- 
capable thereof by final impenitency. It were a healthful 
walk, poor doubting Christian, for thy soul, to go this cir- 
cuit, and oft to see where the utmost stone is laid, and 
boundary set by God’s pardoning mercy, further than 
which He will not go.—Gurnall, 1617-1679. 


MERCY NEVER WANES 


Chance and change are busy ever; 
Man decays, and ages move; 
But His mercy waneth never ; 
God is wisdom, God is love. 
—Bowring. 


CONSCIOUSNESS OF MERCY 


And now we beseech of Thee that we may have every 
day some such sense of the fullness of God’s mercy and 
of the power of God around about us, as we have of the 
fullness of the light of heaven before us. Our tapers we 
trim, and we fear lest the lamp shall go out without oil; 
but none of us have ever had a thought or a care lest the 
sun should be emptied, or lest the air should be exhausted. 
The supply is over-abundant, and the waste is infinitely 
more than that which we use.—Beecher. 


OUR NEED OF THE MERCY-SEAT 


The most holy men, although like the ark they keep both 
the first and second table of the law of God, and have in 


184 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


their hearts with the manna of His grace the rod of His 
fear, have always need to be covered with the mercy-seat ; 
and their most holy and devout aspirations have always 
something faulty in them, as the strong scent of the gal- 
banum was mingled with all the perfumes of the law.— 
Faucheur. aa 


GOD FORGIVES OUR DEBTS 


A merchant that keeps a book of debit and credit writes 
both what is owing him and what he oweth himself, and 
then casteth up the whole. But God doth not so: His 
mercy is triumphant over His justice; and therefore He 
wipes out what we owe Him, and writes down that only 
which -He owes us by promise.—Spencer. 


GOD’S MERCY A HOLY MERCY 


God’s mercy is a holy mercy, which knows how to . 


pardon sin, not to protect it; it is a sanctuary for the 
penitent, not for the presumptuous.—Bishop Reynolds. 


GOD’S MERCY AN OCEAN 


He is rich in mercy, abundant in goodness and truth. Thy 
sins are like a spark of fire that falls into the ocean, it is 
quenched presently ; so are all thy sins in the ocean of God’s 
mercy. There is not more water in the sea than there is 
mercy in God.—Manton, 1620-1667. 


MERCY COVERS GREAT SINS 


Why dost thou not believe in God’s mercy? Is it thy sins 
discourage? God’s mercy can pardon great sins, nay, be- 
cause they are great (Ps. 25 ii.); The sea covers great 
rocks as well as lesser sands.—Watson, 1696. 


GOD’S MERCY A CABLE 


A's a man is saved by catching hold of a cable God’s 
mercy is a great cable let down from heaven to us; now, 


ee ee ee ee 


MERCY OF GOD 185 


taking fast hold of this cable by faith, we are saved.— 
Watson, 1696, 


GOD READY TO EXTEND MERCY 


God will pardon a repentant sinner more quickly than a 
mother would snatch her child out of the fire-——Vianney. 


MERCY A GREAT MOUNTAIN 


Our faults are like a grain of sand beside the great moun- 
tain of the mercies of God.—Vianney. 


GOD’S WILLINGNESS TO SAVE 


It is harder to get sin felt by the creature, than the bur- 
den, when felt, removed, by the hand of a forgiving God. 
Never was tender-hearted surgeon more willing to take 
up the vein, and bind up the wound of his fainting patient 
when he hath bled enough, than God is by His pardoning 
mercy to ease the troubled spirit of a mourning penitent.— 


Gurnall, 1617-1679. 


APPROPRIATING GOD'S MERCY 


If God show mercy to thousands, labor to know that this 
mercy is for you. “He is the God of my mercy” (Ps. 59, 
17). A man that was ready to drown saw a rainbow; 
saith he, “What am I the better, though God will not drown 
the world, if I drown?” So, what are we the better God is 
merciful, if we perish? Let us labor to know God’s special 
mercy is for us——Watson, 1696. 


ABUSING GOD’S MERCY, / 


Take heed of abusing this mercy of God. Suck not 
poison out of the sweet flower of God’s mercy: do not 
think, that because God is merciful you may go on in sin; 
this is to make mercy become your enemy. None might 


186 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT Gop 


touch the ark but the priests, who by their office were 
more holy; none may touch this ark of God’s mercy but 
such as are resolved to be holy. To sin because mercy 
abounds, is the devil’s logic. He that sins because of 
mercy, is like one that wounds his head because he hath a 
plaister; he that sins because of God’s mercy, shall have 
judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury. 
“If he bless himself, saying, I shall have peace though 
I walk after the imaginations of my heart, to add drunken- 
ness to thirst, the Lord will not spare him, but the anger 
of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man.” 
Nothing sweeter than mercy when it is improved; nothing 
fiercer, when it is abused; nothing colder than lead, when it 
is taken out of the mine; nothing more scalding than lead, 
when it is heated; nothing blunter than iron; nothing sharp- 
er, when it is whetted. ‘The mercy of the Lord is upon 
them that fear Him.” Mercy is not for them that sin and 
fear not, but for them that fear and sin not. God’s mercy 
is an holy mercy; where it pardons, it heals——Watson, 1696. 


ACCEPTING GOD’S MERCY 


One day, in the closing campaign of the last bloody 
war with the Turks, a soldier ran through the Russian camp 
in the Balkan Mountains, shouting, ‘““Peace! Peace!’ 

The news excited the whole army, but it seemed too good 
to be true. Eager men, thinking of the glad return to their 
wives and children, seized the messenger, and fiercely de- 
manded, “Who says peace?” 

“The Czar says peace,” replied the soldier. And then 
the mountains rang with hurrahs of gladness. 

The High Priest’s word was not enough to assure the con- 
fessing Israelite. Not even Moses’ word was enough. He 
must know that God says “Peace.”—Rev. E. S. Lorenz. 


| 
; 
} 
] 
; 


GOD PARDONS GREATEST SINS 


Impossible it is, that He should reject any poor penitent 
sinner, merely for the greatness of the sins he hath com- 


SS a ee eS ee ee 


MERCY OF GOD ee Se 


mitted. It is the exaltation of His mercy (saith faith) 
that God hath in His eye when He promiseth pardon to 
poor sinners. . Now, which exalts this most, to pardon little 
or great sinners? whose voice will be highest and shrillest 
in the song of praise, thinkest: thou? surely his, to whom 
most is forgiven; and therefore God cannot but be most 
ready to pardon the greatest sinners when truly penitent. 
A physician that means to be famous will not send away 
those that most need his skill and art; and only practice 
upon such diseases as are slight and ordinary. They are the 
great cures which ring far and near: when one given over 
by himself and others, as a dead man, is by the skill and 
care of a physician rescued out of the jaws of death, that 
seemed to have enclosed him, and raised to health. This 
commends him to all that hear of it, and gains him more 
reputation than a whole year’s practice in ordinary cures.— 
Gurnall, 1617-1679. 


SINNING AGAINST GOD’S MERCY 


Would we not cry, Shame of him, who had a friend 
always feeding him with money, and he should betray and 
injure that friend. Thus ungratefully do sinners deal with 
God, they do not only forget His mercies, but abuse them. 
“When I had fed them to the full, they then committed 
adultery.”” Oh how horrid is this, to sin against a bountiful 
God! to strike (as it were) those hands that relieve us! 
This gives a dye and tincture to men’s sins, and makes 
them crimson. How many make a dart of God’s mercies, 
and shoot at Him? He gives them wit, and they serve the 
devil with it; He gives them strength, and they waste it 
among harlots; He gives them bread to eat, and they lift up 
the heel against Him. “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.” 
These are like Absalom, who, as soon as David his father 
kissed him, plotted treason against him (2 Sam. xv. 10). 
Like the mule, who kicks the dam after she hath given it 
milk. Those who sin against their giver, and abuse God’s 
royal favors, the mercies of God will come in as witnesses 
against them. What is smoother than oil? But if it be 


a 


188 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


heated, what more scalding? What sweeter than mercy? 
But if it be abused, what more dreadful? It turns to fury. 
—Watson, 1696. 


THE DAY OF MERCY WILL END 


Let us take heed, for mercy is like a rainbow, which 
God set in the clouds to remember mankind: it shines here 
as long as it is not hindered; but we must never look for it 
after it is night, and it shines not in the other world. If we 
refuse mercy here, we shall have justice there-—Jeremy 
Taylor, 1612-1667. 


GOD IS MERCIFUL 


God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.—Laurence 
Sterne. 
GOD THE FATHER OF MERCIES 


Consider what that nature must be which is here styled 
the Father of mercies. When a man begets children, they 
are in his own likeness. God groups all the mercies of 


the universe into a great family of children, of which He | 


is the head. Mercies tell us what God is. They are His chil- 
dren. He is the Father of them.—Beecher. — 


i i 


GOODNESS OF GOD 


GOD’S GOODNESS TO ALL 


Paternity and democracy, I think, are the same things. 
The father looks upon his children, and they are all his 
children. One may be a little older than another, one may 
be a little stronger than another, one may be a little hand- 
somer than another; but paternity implies that every one 
according to its nature and capacity receives attention. If 
one child has more intellect than another, the parent gives 
more intellectual stimulus to that child; if another has more 
tendency in the direction of inventive power, the parent 
gives more cultivation to that tendency; if another is artis- 
tically organized, the parent educates it accordingly. Each 
one is treated with reference to its own want. And yet, 
comprehensively, the father looks upon all his children alike 
as his own dear children. I do not call this the democracy 
of love: it is necessity. 

Now, look at the sun—the only thing of such power 
that makes no discriminations and distinctions. I have 
growing in my garden the portulaca in beds, for the sake 
of its glowing color. You know that it is first cousin to 
purslane—a weed that everybody who undertakes to keep 
a garden hates. I have hoed it, and pulled it up, and de- 
nounced it, and spurned it, and given it to the fire and to 
the pigs with maledictions. But I cannot find out that the 
sun exercises any discrimination between the purslane grow- 
ing in my garden and the portulaca. I call one flower and 
the other weed; but God’s sun calls them both flowers. 
There is the Jamestown weed, beautiful in blossom and 
odious in odor. But I cannot see that God’s sun makes any 
distinction between this and the choicest plants. I cannot 
see that the sun is botanical at all. I cannot teach it any- 

189 


thing. If I say to the sun, “This is not the old-fashioned 
single zinnia, with a great coarse globe: this is my double 
zinnia,’ the sun says, “Single zinnia, and double zinnia, 
take as much as you want.” On my place I have fox- 
grapes, that, running over the wall, and falling down in 
every direction, are among the most beautiful things that 
grow; and I havea little vineyard of Delaware grapes with 
which I have taken great pains—pinching, pruning, and 
cultivating them. I want the sun to take notice of my 
cultivated grapes, but I cannot get him to pay any more at- 
tention to them than he does to those fox-grapes. Some 
things bring more money in the market than others; but 1 
cannot see but that the sun treats them all just alike. My 
mullen-stalks are as well taken care of as my wheat. The 
sun that pours its rays through the trees, and bathes and 
nourishes the mighty oak, takes just as much pains with 
witch-grass, or with the detestable Canada thistles—which, 
old sinners as they are, stand up among the grass as thick 
as you sinners stand up among the righteous—as with these. 
And I take notice that, all through the world, the sun does 
not bestow its regards exclusively upon houses that are 
built three stories or five stories high. The Esquimaux hut 
is shined on as much as the king’s palace. The sun makes 
no distinction between a dwelling ornamented with carved 
work and covered with costly material and a dwelling made 
of rough slabs and covered with straw. It does not look 
upon highness any more than upon lowness; upon breadth 
any more than upon narrowness; upon culture any more 
than upon the unrefined conditions of nature. It goes dif- 
fusing itself through the air; and everything, whether it be 
eagle or vulture, whether it be gorgeous butterfly or buzzing 
beetle, whether it be that which is escaping from peril to life 
or that which is seeking life, is shined upon. The sun bears 
itself without partiality in infinite abundance and con- 
tinuity. It is a life-giving stimulus to all things. And it is 
the emblem of God, of whom it is said, “He maketh His sun 
to rise on the ‘evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust.”—Beecher. 


GOODNESS OF GOD 191° 


GOD’S GOODNESS TO THE POOR 


God presents Himself to us as having:a peculiar and 
tender care of the poor. It is not the robust but delicate 
child of the family, around whom a father’s and mother’s 
affections cluster thickest, are most closely twined. The 
boy or girl whom feebleness of body or mind makes least 
fit to bear the world’s rough usage, and most dependent on 
others’ kindness, is like those tendrils that, winding them- 
selves round the tree they spangle with flowers, bind it most 
closely in their embraces, and bury their pliant arms deepest 
in its bark. And what a blessed and beautiful arrange- 
ment of Providence it is, that they who cost most care, and 
lie with greatest weight on parents’ arms and hearts, are 
commonly most loved! 

Helplessness, appealing to our pity, begets affection. Thus 
was the heart of the rough sailor touched, when, tossing with 
other castaways in an open boat on the open sea, he parted 
with a morsel of food, which, hidden with more care than 
misers hide their gold, he had reserved for his own last 
extremity. Around him lay men and women; some dead 
with glassy eyes; some dying, and these reduced to ghastly 
skeletons; but none of these moved him to peril his own 
life for theirs. The object of his noble and not unrewarded 
generosity—for, as if Heaven had sent it on purpose to re- 
ward the act, a sail speedily hove in sight—was a gentle 
boy that, with his face turned on hers, lay dying in a 
mother’s arms, and between whose teeth the famished man 
put his own last precious morsel. 

Of this feeling I met also a remarkable illustration in my 
old country parish. In one of its cottages dwelt a poor 
idiot child; horrible to all eyes but her parents’: and so 
helpless that, though older than sisters just blooming into 
womanhood, she lay, unable either to walk or speak, a 
burden on her mother’s lap, almost the whole day long,—a 
heavy handful to one who had the cares of a family, and 
was the wife of a hard working man,—and a most painful 
contrast to the very roses that flung their bright clusters 
over the cottage window as well as to the lark that, pleased 


192 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


with a grassy turf, caroled within its cage. Death, in most 
instances unwelcome visitor, came at length,—to her and to 
-their relief. Relief! so I thought; and, when the father 
came with an invitation to the funeral, so I said. Though 
not roughly, but inadvertently spoken, the word jarred on 
a tender chord; and I was more than ever taught how 
helplessness begets affection in the very measure and pro- 
portion of itself, when he burst into a fit of sorrow, and, 
speaking of his beautiful boys and blooming girls, said, “If 
it had been God’s will, I would have parted with any of 
them rather than her.” 

Now this kindness to the helpless, of which man’s home, 
both in the humblest and highest walks of life, presents so 
many lovely instances, and which, you will observe, moves 
the roughest crowd on the street, without taking time to 
inquire into its merits, to throw themselves into the quarrel 
of a woman or weeping child, is a flower of Eden, that 
clings to the ruins of our nature,—one beautiful feature of 
God’s image which has to some extent survived the fall. 
“The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” Well 
named, “Our Father who is in heaven;”’ He sets Himself 
forth in His Word as the Patron and Protector of the poor; 
He recommends them in many ways and by many consid- 
erations to our kindness; and teaches us that, if we would 
be like Himself, we must remember their miseries amid our 
enjoyments, and fill their empty cups with the overflowings 
of our own.—Guthrie. 


TRUSTING GOD’S GOODNESS 


His goodness stands approved, 
Unchanged from day to day; 
Pll drop my burden at His feet, 
And bear a song away. 
_  —Philip Doddridge. 


GOD LOVES TO DO GOOD 


The Divine nature is so constructed that it loves to do 
good; that it loves to recuperate men; that it loves to re- 


GOODNESS OF GOD 193 


store that which sin has blurred or blasted. God loves to’ 
bless men out of the supremacy of a love which carries in 
it infinite benefaction wherever there is mental blight, 
throughout the heaven and the realms of the universe. The 
nature of God is fruitful in generosity. He is so good that 
He loves to do good, and loves to make men good, and loves | 
to make them happy by making them good. He loves to 
be patient with them, and to wait for them, and to pour 
benevolence upon them, because that is His nature. 

Why does a musician sing? To please himself. It is 
the very nature of his organization to sing. His mind loves — 
music. Why does a painter love to paint? Because paint- | 
ing is congenial to his very organic nature. Why does the | 
orator feel the joy of speech? Because his whole nature 
is attuned and attempered to that operation. Why is it, 
when you go into many and many a house, that you see 
all the children gathered in one room? Are they gathered 
around about the young? No. Are they gathered together 


with those that are full of frolic? No. They are gathered 


around the aged. It is the grandmother who sits in her 
chair, with her nice frilled cap, white as snow, on her head, 
and her spectacles lifted upon her brow. The little children 
play about her chair. They can hardly be coaxed away 
from her. Why are they all drawn to her? Because she 
makes them happy. Why does she make them happy? Be- 
cause her thoughts are all serene. She does not do it on 
purpose. It is her pleasure to do it. She just pours out of 
herself the music of harmony, and it fills the child with 
joy. It is her nature to do it. 

Why does Sir Curmudgeon, who lives in his castle, when 
his door has been opened by the hand of want coming in 
from the storm, say, “Get out—get out—you vagabond! I 
do not want to hear. Never come here again’? He does 
it because it is his nature to do it. He does it because he 
feels like it. When another man sees want, why do his 
eyes flow down with tears? Why does he instantly feel, 
“IT adopt this want; I will bear this burden’? Why do 
men watch all day and all night at the door of want, and 
give, and give, and continue to give? Why are they happy 


194. GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


in giving? Is it because of any agreement or bargain that 
they have entered into? No, they are acting out their 
nature. That is the way their soul runs. 

Why does God love? Because it is His nature to love. 
Why is He patient? Because it is His nature. Why is He 
forgiving? Because that is His nature. Why does He 
promise everything to you without condition? Because He 
is just so generous. Why does He love you, though you are 
unworthy of love? Because that is just the way that the 
mind of God acts. And that this might be made manifest, 
He made the most magnificent display of it in this world 
in the Son of God, who came to live, to love, to suffer, and 
to die for men. But that was only a faint representation. 
I do not hesitate to say of the royalty of that which is so 
vast and glorious in the spheres above, that it cannot be 
made known in time and in our horizon here.—Beecher. 


GOD’S. MERCIES LIKE A FOREST 


So many are God’s kindnesses to us, that, as drops of 
water, they run together; and it is not until we are borne 
up by the multitude of them, as by streams in deep channels, 
that we recognize them as coming from Him. We have 
walked amid His mercies as in a forest where we are 
tangled among ten thousand growths, and touched on every 
hand by leaves and buds which we notice not. We cannot 
recall all the things He has done for us. They are so 
many that they must needs crowd upon each other, until 
they go down behind the horizon of memory like full hemis- 
pheres of stars that move in multitudes and sink, not sep- 
arate and distinguishable, but multitudinous, each casting 
light into the other, and so clouding each other by common 
brightness.—Beecher. 


GOD'S GOODNESS EVER-FLOWING 


Did you ever stand on a bright summer day by the black 
swirling pool at the foot of a waterfall, and look up to the 
top of the cascade, where, scattering its liquid beads like 


GOODNESS OF GOD 195 


sparkling diamonds, it sprang boldly out from the rock 
into the air? How ceaseless the flow! and with its snowy 
foam ever flashing in the light of day, and its deep solemn 
voice, in that lone glen, ever praising God through the hours 
of night—what an image does it offer of the stream of 
mercies that are continually falling on us from the bountiful 
hand of God! 

The Scriptures employ other, and indeed many, images 
of God’s affluent bounty. God Himself says, “I will be as 
the dew unto Israel”—but there are cloudy skies and breezy 
nights when no dew falls, emblem of divine bounty, to hang 
gems on every bush, and snow the fields with “orient 
pearls.” Again it is said: “He shall come down like rain 
upon the mown grass, and showers that water the earth,” 
but there are days and weeks without a drop of rain. Again 
it is said, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and 
floods upon the dry ground”’—but it is only on rare occa- 
sions that the river, swollen by many a tributary, comes 
down red and roaring, and overflowing all its banks, turns 
every wooded knoll into an island, and green valleys into 
inland seas. But, is there ever a month, a week, a day, 
an hour, a moment, a single moment, when from Thy blessed 
and bountiful hand, O God! mercies are not falling in 
showers—thick as the rain-drops that shimmer in sunlight 
on the water, or as the snow-flakes that fill the wintry air! 
—Guthrie. 


THE CONDESCENSION OF GOD 


There is no subject of contemplation, indeed, more 
marvelous than the unceasing attention and care lavished 
by Deity on small as well as on great; that the vast prov- 
inces of His giant empire do not withdraw His thoughts 
and care from the feeble and insignificant; that He who 
wheels the planets in their courses, and lights up the blazing 
suns of the firmament, can watch also the sparrows fall, 
and feed the young ravens when they cry! Just as the 
mountain supports the tiny blade of grass and the modest 
floweret as well as the giant pine or cedar; just as that 
ocean bears up in safety the seabird seated on its crested 


196 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


waves as well as the leviathan vessel: so while the Great 
Keeper of Israel can listen to the archangel’s song and the 
seraph’s burning devotions, He can carry in His bosom 
the feeblest lamb of the fold, and lead gently the most 
sorrowing spirit. The Psalmist delights to celebrate these 
two thoughts in conjunction:—God in the vastness of His 
omnipotence, and God in the condescending tenderness of 
lowly love to the feeble and fallen. “Thy kingdom is an 
everlasting kingdom, Thy dominion endureth throughout all 
generations’ —“The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth 
up all those that be bowed down:” He telleth the number 
of the stars: He calleth them all by their names”—“He heal- 
eth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.’— 
Macduff. 


THE SYMPATHY OF GOD 


God is in sympathy with you. Don’t you think He 
knows how heavy the hod of bricks is that the workman 
carries up the ladder on the wall? Don’t you think He 
hears the ring of the pickax of the miner down in the gold 
shaft? Don’t you think He knows how hard the tempest 
strikes the sailor at masthead? Don’t you think He sees 
the factory girl amid flying spindles, and knows how her 
arms ache? Don’t you think He sees the sewing-woman 

in the fourth story, and knows how few pence she gets 
for making one garment? Ay, ay; I tell you that louder 
than the roar of the wheels and the din of the great cities, 
the sigh of the over-tasked working-man rises into the ear 
of God. Oh! ye who are weary of hand, weary of head, 
weary of foot, and weary of heart, “Cast thy burden on 
the Lord, and He will sustain thee.”—Talmage. 


EVERYTHING SHOWS GOD’S GOODNESS 


Not a step can we take in any direction without per- 
ceiving the most extraordinary traces of design; and the 
skill everywhere conspicuous is calculated in so vast a pro- 
portion of instances to promote the happiness of living 
creatures, and especially of ourselves, that we feel no 


4 Se a ee 


6 


GOODNESS OF GOD 197 


hesitation in concluding that, it we Knew the whole scheme 
of Providence, every part would appear to be in harmony 
with a plan of absolute benevolence——Lord Brougham, 


GOD SEEKS MAN’S HAPPINESS 


As the sun sends forth a benign and gentle influence on 
the seed of plants, that it may invite forth the active and 
plastic power from its recess and secrecy, that, by rising 
into the tallness and dimensions of a tree, it may still re- 
ceive a greater and more refreshing influence from its 
foster-father, the prince of all the bodies of light; and, in 
all these emanations, the sun itself receives no advantage, 
but the honor of doing benefits: so doth the Almighty 
Father of all the creatures. He at first sends forth His 
blessings upon us, that we, by using them aright, should 
make ourselves capable of greater; while giving glory to 
God, and doing homage to Him, are nothing to His ad- 
vantage but only to ours; our duties towards Him being 
vapors ascending from the earth, not at all to refresh the 
regions of the clouds, but to return back in a fruitful and 
refreshing shower; and God created us, not that we can 
increase His felicity, but that He might have a subject 
receptive of felicity from Him.—Bp. Taylor. ! 


GOD'S MERCIES EVER-FLOWING 


In the dewdrops that top every spike of grass, sow the 
sward with orient pearl, and hang like pendent diamonds, 
sparkling in the sun from all the leaves of the forest, you 
see the multitude of His mercies. He crowns the year 
with His bounty. We have seen other streams dried up 
by the heat of summer, and frozen by the cold of winter— 
that of His mercies never. It has flowed on; day by day, 
night by night, ever flowing; and largely fed of heavenly 
showers, sometimes overflowing all its banks. To this, and 
that other one has the past brought afflictions? Still, may 
I not ask, how few our miseries to the number of our 
mercies; how far have our blessings exceeded our afflic- 


198 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT Gop 


tions; our nights of sleep, those of wakefulness; our hours 
of health, those of sickness; our many gains, the few losses 
‘we have suffered? For every blow, how many blessings! 
and even when He smote with one hand, did not a gracious 
God hold up with the other? Who has not to sing of mercy 
as well as judgment; ay, much more of mercies than of 
judgments? Let us not write the memory of these on 
water, and of those on the rock.—Guthrie. 


GOD’S GOODNESS SUPPLIES ALL NEEDS 


As the sun gives life and joy to all the world, and if there 
were millions of more kinds of beings and of individuals 
in it, His light and heat are sufficient for them all; so the 
divine goodness can supply us with all good things, and 
ten thousand worlds more.—Bates, 1625-1699. 


GOD GIVES ALL THAT IS BEST FOR US 


There is nothing that God has judged good for us that 
He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the 
natural and the moral world—Edmund Burke. 


FAITH IN GOD’S GOODNESS 


Let me, O my God, stifle forever in my heart every 
thought that wouid tempt me to doubt Thy goodness. I 
know that Thou canst not but be good. O merciful Father, 
let me no longer reason about grace, but silently abandon 
myself to its operation.—Fenelon, 


GOD’S GOODNESS REVEALED IN CHRIST 


Whatever may be the mysteries of life and death, there 
is one mystery which the cross of Christ reveals to us, and 
that is the infinite and absolute goodness of God. Let ali 
the rest remain a mystery so long as the mystery of the 
cross of Christ gives us faith for all the rest—Charles 
Kingsley. 


GOODNESS OF GOD 199 


GOD'S GOODNESS OVER THE TEMPTED 


Dr. Kane, finding a flower under the Humboldt glacier, 
was more affected by it because it grew beneath the lip and 
cold bosom of the ice than he would have been by the 
most gorgeous garden bloom. So some single struggling 
grace, in the heart of one far removed from Divine in- 
fluences, may be dearer to God than a whole catalogue of 
virtues in the life of one more favored of heaven.—Beecher. 


GOD’S JOY TO DO GOOD 


As the fountain finds its expression in overflowing, as a 
tiver in rushing to the infinite main, as trees in bursting into 
life and blossom in the spring-tide, so God feels it His joy 
to give liberally, and to give above all we ask, or think, or 
desire, for Christ’s sake-—Cumming. 


“GOD”? MEANS GOOD 


There is a beauty in the name appropriated by the Saxon | 
nations to the Deity, unequaled except by his most vener-. 
ated Hebrew appellation. They called him “Gop,” which is | 
literally “THE Goop.” The same word thus signifying the | 
Deity and His most endearing quality—Turner. | 


EASY TO FIND GOD 


God is great, and therefore He will be sought: He is good, 
and therefore He will be found.—Selected. 


GOD'S GOODNESS OVER ALL 


}:. Frater 


There is no creature so small and abject, that it repre- 
senteth not the goodness of God—Thomas A. Kempis. 


LONGSUFFERING OF GOD 


THE LONGSUFFERING OF GOD WONDERFUL \ 


There is nothing more wonderful than God’s forbearance 
with sinners. Their foul deeds are all done in His sight; 
their vile utterances are all spoken in His hearing; their 
sins are utterly offensive to Him; they fill Him with disgust, 
and loathing, and anger; and yet, though He has all power, 
and could crush them in a moment, He spares them! Nay, 
He does them good; He causes new mercies to descend 
upon them every day; and when at last He does proceed 
to punish them for their transgressions, He does so with 
reluctance and regret; it is with tears that He pronounces 
the sentence of their doom.—R. A. Bertram. 


JUDGMENT FOLLOWS LONGSUFFERING 


May sinners conclude that there is perfect peace between 
God and them, because the terrible effects of His fury do 
not actually roar against them? Are they therefore finally 
discharged, because they are not presently called to an 
account? No, certainly, for every sin stands registered in 
the black book of heaven, and that with all its circum- 
stances and particularities; and consequently has the same 
sting, and guilt, and destructive quality, as if it were actual- 
ly tearing and lashing the sinner with the greatest horror 
and anguish of mind imaginable. And no man knows how 
soon God may let loose the tormenting power of sin upon 
his conscience; how soon He may set fire to all that fuel 
that lies dormant and treasured up in his sinful breast. 
This he may be sure of, that, whensoever God does s0, it 
will shake all the powers of his soul, scatter his easy 
thoughts, and lay all the briskness and jollity of his secure 

200 


LONGSUFFERING OF GOD 201 


mind in the dust. A murdering piece may lie still, though it 
be charged, and men may walk by it and over it safe, and 


- without any fear, though all this while it has death in the 


belly of it; but when the least spark comes to fire and call 
forth its killing powers, every one will fly from its fatal 
mouth, and confess that it carries death with it. Just so 
it is with the divine wrath; nobody knows the force of it, 


till it be kindled. 


But now God has, by a perpetual decree, awarded the sad 
sentence of “tribulation and anguish upon every soul of 
man that doeth evil.” So that, if He gives not the sinner 
his portion of sorrow here, it is to be feared He has it in 
full reserve for him hereafter. Upon which account, the 
present quiet of his condition is so far from ministering 
any just cause of satisfaction to him, that he has reason to 
beg upon his knees, that. God would alter the method of 
His proceeding, and rather compound and strike him with 
some present horror for sin, than sink him under the un- 
supportable weight of an eternal damnation. When a man 
must either have his flesh cut and burnt, or die with a 
gangrene, would he not passionately desire the surgeon to 
cut, and burn, and lance him, and account him his friend for 
all these healing severities? This is the sinner’s case; and 
therefore when, upon his commission of any great sin, God 
seems to be silent, and to connive, let him not be confident, 
but fear. For one may sometimes keep silence, and smile 
too, even out of very anger and indignation. If the present 
bill of his accounts be but small, it is a shrewd argument 
that there is a large reckoning behind.—South, 1633-1716, 


GREATEST JUDGMENITS RESERVED FOR THE FUTURE LIFE vl 


As water is deepest where it is the stillest, so where God 
is most silent in threatening and patient in sparing, there 
He is most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge; 
and, therefore, the fewer the judgments be that are poured 
forth upon the wicked in this life, the more are reserved in 
store for them in the life to come.—Cawdray, 1609. 


202 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


A LIMIT TO GOD'S FORBEARANCE 


On account of His essential righteousness, God must 
punish iniquity; but because He is infinite in mercy, He 
would save the transgressors, and in His long-suffering He 
waits, as in the time of Noah, in order that those who have 
provoked Him to anger may have full opportunity to turn 
to Him and live. “The Lord is not slack concerning His 
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering 
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will 
come :”—“Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an 
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall 
be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, 
saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither 
root nor branch.” 

We may see a rough image of this suspension of the 
Divine vengeance against sin, and of the real terrors of that 
suspension, which only a timely repentance can avert, in 
the mountain torrent swollen by the melting of the winter’s 
snow. At first a sudden fuller flow announces to the in- 
habitants of the valley that the thaw has commenced. But 
the increasing of the waters suddenly ceases, not to the 
contentment, but to the alarm, of the inhabitants of the 
valley below. It inspires their fear and arouses their en- 
ergies. Instantly they sally out with ax and hook and cord. 
Mark how eagerly they climb the rugged slippery hill. 
They know that the present quietude of the torrent tells of 
future disaster. It is a plain indication to them that some 
tree has floated down the current, and by the whirling of 
the waters in the narrow channel has been forced athwart 
the stream; that there is being rapidly constructed a natural 
dam, behind which the flood will gather, and seethe, and 
swell, and rage, with ever-increasing fury, until it carries 
all before it, and bursts with devastating volume and force 
on the farms and fields below; and the purpose of those 
men who are hastening upwards is to let out the flood be- 
fore it has assumed these dangerous proportions. In like 
manner the guilty and impenitent have as little reason to be 


LONGSUFFERING OF GOD 203 


at ease “because sentence against an evil work is not exe- 
cuted speedily.” On the contrary, that very fact should 
arouse them to an instantaneous repentance; for while in 


mercy the long-suffering of God as a mighty dam obstructs 


_ the forth-flowing of His righteous vengeance, when in 
_ judgment it is at length removed, the terrors of the wrath 
of their outraged God will be in exact proportion to the 
space in which it was treasured up. , 

Or still more forcibly you may see emblemed the gather- 
_ ing of God’s vengeance on account of sin in the gathering 
_ of the vapor on a summer day. Go, stand upon the cliff, 
and with keenest eye survey the ocean’s expanse, and you 
cannot detect the vapor ascending. But yet you know it is 
rising, rising ever, rising without intermission, rising always 
in greater volume; and you know that between you and the 
sun is floating an atmosphere of vapor, now perceptibly 
dulling the light, but which it needs only a change of wind 
to condense into cloud. You know that in yon soft, calm, 
lustrous, stainless dome of blue are already stored all the 
_ elements of tempests, and thunderings, and flaming fires. 
_ The exhortation of our text is addressed to those between 
whom and the source of all true light and prosperity a 
_ vapor of unrequited wrong floats; and the penalty de- 
nounced is, that if they do not heed this warning, this 
vapor will be condensed into cloud, and those who despised 
the merciful continuance of the light be brought into dark- 
ness and disaster.—R. A. Bertram. 


FIERCER JUDGMENT FOLLOWS. FORBEARANCE 


__ As wet wood, although it be long in burning, yet will 

burn faster at the last: so the anger of God, although it 
be long in coming, yet it will come the fiercer at the last-— 
_ Cawdray, 1609. 


GOD’S SILENCE PORTENTOUS - 


_ Since we know God to be grievously displeased with sin, 
_ there is something awful in His keeping silence, while it is 


204 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


committed under His eye. If a child comes home conscious 
of having offended a parent, and the parent says nothing 
all that night, but merely looks very grave, the child is 
' more frightened than he would be by a sharp rebuke, or 
severe punishment; for if such rebuke or punishment were 
inflicted, he would, at least, know the worst; but when the 
parent is silent, he knows not what may be hanging over 
him. So, when we remember how many things plainly 
offensive to God are going on all around us, it is a terrible 
thought that He is still silent. We fear that He is but 
getting ready to take vengeance on those who defy Him: 
And so that passage, which we have quoted from the 
Psalms, carries on the train of thought in what follows: 
“God is a righteous judge, strong and patient; and God is 
provoked every day. If a man will not turn, he will whet 
His sword: He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.” 

In countries where earthquakes happen, a dead silence 
always goes before the earthquake. Nature seems hushed 
into an awful stillness, as if she were holding her breath 
at the thought of the coming disaster. The air hangs 
heavily; not a breath fans the leaves; the birds make no 
music; there is no hum of insects; there is no ripple of 
streams; and this while whole houses, and even cities some- 
times, are hanging on the brink of ruin. So it is with God’s 
silence,—it will be followed, when it seems deepest, by the 
earthquake of His judgments. And so the holy Apostle 
writes to the Thessalonians: “When they shall say, Peace 
and safety” (from the fact of God’s being so still, and so 
dumb), “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as 
travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.” 
—Goulburn. 


GOD’S FORBEABANCE WITH SINNERS 


Suppose a man should come into a curious artificer’s shop, 
and there, with one blow, dash in pieces such a piece of art 
that had cost many years’ study and pains in the contriving 
thereof, how could he bear with it, how would he take on 
to see the workmanship of his hands so rashly, so willfully 


as | 


LONGSUFFERING OF GOD 205 


destroyed? He could not but take it ill, and be much 
troubled thereat. Thus it is, that, as soon as God had set 
up and perfected the frame of the world, sin gave a subtle 
shake to all: it unpinned the frame, and had like to have 
pulled all in pieces again; nay, had it not been for the 
promise of Christ, all this goodly frame had been reduced to 
its primitive nothing again. Man, by his sin, had pulled 
down all about his ears; but God in mercy keeps it up: 
man, by sin, provokes God; but God in mercy passeth by 
all affronts whatsoever. Oh, the wonderful mercy! oh, the 
omnipotent patience, of God !—Spencer. 


ABUSING GOD’S PATIENCE ~ 


Dost thou not see in the Scriptures many examples of 
God’s severity upon the abuse of His patience? What be- 
came of Sodom and Gomorrah when God waited in the 
days of Lot? Are they not suffering the vengeance of 
eternal fire? (Jude 7). What became of the Jews, upon 
whom Christ waited, calling upon them and crying to them 
to return and reform? Is not wrath come upon them to the 
utmost? Are not these like the mast of a ship sunk in the 
sands, standing up to warn thee to avoid their course, lest 
thou sink eternally >—Swinnock, 1673. 


GRIEF OF GOD 


GOD THE GREATEST SUFFERER 


Philosophy, analogy and revelation proclaim that the 
greatest sufferer in the universe is the Father of us all. 
i. ss Where there is life;there is capacity’ for, pain... 
God could not impart what He does not possess. . . . The 
capacity to suffer is universal because it is the profoundest 
trait in the Divine nature. ... No part of the Divine 
nature can be inactive. We are not willing to charge God 
with the most selfish trait known to an intelligent mind, viz., 
to refuse activity to one’s nature because its working would 
hurt. As well might we expect a mother to cease loving a 
child because he will grieve and wound her. . . . Ascent in 
the scale of being means added capacity to suffer... . How 
can one follow the Master in His humiliation, see Him weep 
over the sinful city, watch His agony in the garden, hear 
His cry on the cross, remembering that He is the brightness 
of His Father’s glory and the image of His person—not in 
form, but in disposition—and yet doubt that God suffers? 
Immanuel is a-man of sorrows, etc. If God does not suffer, 
Jesus is not His representative. . . . We believe Christ to 
be the highest possible revelation of God; yet the most 
pathetic picture, the most sorrowful life, is the life of the 
God-man. The most beautiful picture of God that we have 
is a picture of the most loving, most suffering Divine-human 
Being that the world will ever see—F. B. Stockdale in The 
Methodist Review, January, 1899. 


206 


PSS. 


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Te a ae Nee ae) Oe eS ee 


ex 


GUIDANCE OF GOD 


GOD’S GUIDANCE GUARANTEED 


God’s guidance is absolutely guaranteed to any Christian 
who meets the simple conditions. Guidance is not guaran- 
teed to any one who is not a Christian, nor to a Christian 
who is not wholly yielded, though God often does guide even 
these two classes. “If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him 
ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; 
and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). That is an abso- 
lute promise, and taken all by itself it appears to be uncon- 
ditional. But no verse of Scripture is written all by itself, 
and should never so be taken. The condition follows in the 
next verse: “But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for 
he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea, driven by the 
wind and tossed.” 

So, in guidance as in all else in the Christian life, the 
measure of our obtaining is “according to your faith.” This 
faith, which ceases to be faith if it has in it one grain of 

question or doubt (nothing doubting), is a supernaturally 
_ bestowed faith and is promiséd only to one who is utterly 
yielded to God and wanting nothing except God’s glory. A 
later word in the same epistle points to a secret of unan- 
swered prayer: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask 
amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures” (James 4:3). 

The man who walks and talks with God . . . may al- 
ways seek guidance and will receive it at the time he needs 
_ to use it, though the matter may not be clear as soon as he 

_ expects. 

The conditions of claiming guidance from God are few 
and simple, but drastic. First there is the utter death of 
self, the desire only for that which is God’s will and which 
will glorify Him. Then there is the absolute conviction, 

207 


908 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


which wavers not, that God will give the necessary guidance 
_ because He has promised it. The matter is then presented 

before the Father, and the answer confidently awaited. If 
the answer is unequivocally given in His Word, we need not 
expect further answer. The counsel of consecrated friends 
is often used by God in revealing His will. Providential 
circumstances may be a big factor in determining the choice. 
As these things are considered, or apart from them, a strong 
inner conviction may come that leaves us with no doubt 
that God has spoken. Such a conviction of his will never, of 
course, contradicts the Scriptures at any point. If it does, 
then it was not the voice of God. But often no such clear 
conviction comes when the time for definite choice arrives. 
Then we are to use our best judgment as to the course to be 
taken, and proceed with absolute assurance that God has 
given His guidance in accordance with the promise. 

An almost invariable sign to a Christian who is yielded 
to God that he is in any particular matter walking in the 
will of God, is the sense of quiet peace that comes. “Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 
thee” (Isa. 26:3). No Christian should choose to do any- 
thing, whether it be eating, or drinking, or deciding the 
hours of his sleep, the use of his time, his engagements, the 
choice of his friends, without seeking and expecting the 
guidance of God. All of these things, to the last detail, may 
then be done with the peace of God that passeth all under- 
standing guarding his heart and his thoughts in Christ 
Jesus.—Sunday School Times. 


THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD 


If the Lord is my Shepherd then I am His sheep, 
Oh! the thought fills my soul with delight, 
For we pasture together, by still waters deep 
And we shelter together at night. 
—Selected. 
TRUST GOD TO GUIDE 


Courage, brother! do not stumble 
Though the path be dark as night; 


GUIDANCE OF GOD 209 


There’s a star to guide the humble 
Trust in God and do the right. 
Let the road be rough or dreary 
And its end be out of sight, 
Foot it bravely, strong or weary, 
Trust in God and do the right. 
—Anon. 


A PRAYER FOR GUIDANCE 


Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, 
Pilgrim through this barren land; 
J am weak, but Thou art mighty; 
Hold me with Thy powerful hand; 
Bread of heaven; 
Feed me till I want no more. 
—W. Williams. 


LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT! 


Lead, kindly Light! amid the encircling gloom, 
Lead Thou me on; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 
Lead Thou me on; 
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 
—John H. Newman. 


NEED OF GUIDANCE 


Oh, shall I ever learn 
The lesson grand, 
That I should never spurn 
The offered hand \ 
Reached out to guide my way 
Through life’s dark land? 
—Mrs. N. A. Holt. 


GOD WILL GUIDE 


Do you feel that you have lost your way in life? Then 
God Himself will show you your way. Are you utterly 


210 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


helpless, worn out, body and soul? Then God’s eternal love 
is ready and willing to help you up, and revive you. Are 
‘you wearied with doubts and terrors? Then God’s eternal 
light is ready to show you your way; God’s eternal peace 
ready to give you peace. Do you feel yourself full of sins 
and faults? Then take heart; for God’s unchangeable will 
is, to take away those sins and purge you from those faults. 
—Charles Kingsley. 


LOOKING BACK AT GOD'S GUIDANCE 


When ye are come to the other side of the water, and 
have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, 
and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome 
_ journey, and shall see in that clear glass of endless glory, 

nearer to the bottom of God’s wisdom, ye shall then be 
forced to say, “If God had done otherwise with me than 
He hath done, I had never come to the enjoyment of this 
crown of glory.”—Rutherford. 


WHY GOD PERMITS TRIALS 


When He bears us along in His tender and paternal 
bosom, then it is that we forget Him; in the sweetness of 
His gifts we forget the Giver; His ceaseless blessings, in- 
stead of melting us into love, distract our attention, and turn 
it away from Him. 

The sun by the action of heat makes wax moist and mud 
dry, hardening the one while it softens the other, by the 
same operation producing exactly opposite results; thus, 
from the long-suffering of God, some derive benefit, and 
others harm; some are softened, while others are hardened. 
—Theodoret. 


GOD HAS A PURPOSE IN EVERYTHING 


Day and night, and every moment, there are voices about 
us. All the hours speak as they pass; and in every event 
there is a message to us; and all our circumstances talk 


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GUIDANCE OF GOD 911" 


with us; but it is in Divine language, that wordliness misun- 
derstands, that selfishness is frightened at, and that only 
the children of God hear rightly and happily—Wm, Mount- 
ford. 


GUIDANCE GIVEN TO ALL WHO SEEK IT 


Whosoever is really earnest for Divine direction, more 
anxious to know what the Lord would have him do than to 
know what is for his own present ease or worldly interest, 
and who confides the case to Him who giveth wisdom liber- 
ally, and upbraideth not, may count on it very confidently 
that the Lord will send forth His light—James Hamilton. 


GOD GUIDES WITH HIS EYE 


“T will guide thee with mine eye”—a glance, not a blow 
—a look of directing love that at once heartens to duty, and 
tells duty. We must be very near Him to catch that look, 
and very much in sympathy with Him to understand it; but 
when we do, we must be swift to obey—Alexander Mac- 
laren. 


SAFETY IN GOD’S GUIDANCE 


Can we be unsafe where God has placed us, and where He 
watches over us as a parent a child that he loves Fenelon. 


WHY GOD REMOVES MAN’S PROPS 


The Christian will sometimes be brought to walk in a soli- 
tary path. God seems to cut away his props, that He may 
reduce him to Himself. His religion is to be felt as a per- 
sonal, particular, appropriate possession. He is to feel, that, 
as there is but one Jehovah to bless, so there seems to him 
as though there were but one penitent in the universe to be 
blessed by Him.—Richard Cecil. 


GUIDANCE GREATER THAN SUPPOSED 


My faith is, that there is a greater amount of revelation 
given to guide each man by the principles laid down in the 


212 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Bible, by conscience, and by providence, than most men are 
aware of. It is not the light which is defective, it is an eye 
-to see it—Norman Macleod. 


LIGHT GIVEN WHERE NEEDED 


As a general rule, those truths which we highly relish, and 
which shed a degree of practical light upon the things which 
we are required to give up for God, are leadings of Divine 
grace, which we should follow without hesitation Fenelon. 


ASKING GUIDANCE IN SMALL THINGS 


There is nothing so small but that we may honor God by 
asking His guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into 
our own hands.—John Ruskin, 


WORKING ON GOD'S LINE 


As long as we work on God’s line, He will aid us. When 
we attempt to work on our own lines, He rebukes us with 
failure.—T. L. Cuyler. 


PROOF OF GOD’S GUIDANCE 


It has been said that if God is really leading us to do any- 
thing, His Spirit, His Word and His Providence will agree. 
That is, if we have an impression which is really from the 
Spirit of God, it will be in harmony with the Word of God, 
as the Holy Spirit never leads contrary to the Word of 
God. Again, if God is really leading us to do anything, He 
will open the way for us to do it if we do our part, although 
He may open the way only one step at a time. His Spirit, 
His Word and His Providence always agree.—J. Gilchrist 
Lawson. | 


HOW GOD GUIDED ISRAEL 


When Israel, of the Lord belov’d, 
Out of the land of bondage came, 


2 a 


GUIDANCE OF GOD 213 


Her father’s God before her mov’d, 
An awful guide in smoke and flame. 
—Scott. 


GOD DISPOSES 


Man proposes, but God disposes, © 
—Thomas A. Kempis. 


GOD WORKS IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY | 


God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea 
And rides upon the storm. 
—Cowper. 


GLORY AND RICHES OF GOD 


GOD’S FULLNESS LIKE THE SUN 


Like His emblem the sun, He has a fullness of light in 
Himself. Were a thousand million more creatures to crowd 
the earth, that sun has light and heat for them all; and in 
God there is a fullness of good infinitely greater than the 
whole creation or the most capacious of His creatures can 
require. He is a sun and shield; He will give grace and 
glory; “no good thing will He withhold from them that walk 
uprightly.”—Selected. 


/ 
GOD’S GLORY TOO GREAT FOR MORTAL EYES 


It presented a difficulty to the mind of the Emperor Tra- 
jan, that God should be everywhere, and yet not to be seen 
by mortal eye. ‘You teach me,” said the emperor, on one 
eccasion, to Rabbi Joshua, “that your God is everywhere: 
and you boast that he resides among your nation. I should 
like to see him.”—“God’s presence is indeed everywhere,” 
said the rabbi; “but he cannot be seen. No mortal eye can 
behold his glory.” The emperor insisted. ‘‘Well,’ said 
Joshua; “but suppose we go first, and look at one of his 
ambassadors.” The emperor assented. The rabbi took him 
into the open air. It was noonday; and he bade him look on 
the sun, blazing in its meridian splendor. “I cannot see,” 
said Trajan: “the light dazzles me.”’ Said the rabbi, “Thou 
art unable to bear the light of one of his creatures,—how, 
then, couldst thou look upon the Creator? Would not such 
a light annihilate thee ?”—Foster. 


GOD'S TREASURES EXHAUSTLESS 


I have read of a Spanish ambassador that, coming to see 
the treasury of St. Mark, in Venice, that is so much cried 
up in the world, he fell a groping at the bottom of the chests 
and trunks to see whether they had any bottom, and being 


asked the reason why he did so, answered, “My master’s . 


214 


GLORY AND RICHES OF GOD 215 


treasure differs from yours, and excels yours, in that His 
hath no bottom as yours have,” alluding to the mines in 
Mexico, Peru, and other parts of the Western India. All 
men’s mints, bags, purses, and coffers may be quickly ex- 
hausted and drawn dry; but God is such an inexhaustible 
portion that he can never be drawn dry. All God’s treasures 
are bottomless, and all his mints are bottomless, and all his 
bags are bottomless. Millions of thousands in heaven and 
eatth feed every day upon him, and yet he feels it not; he 
is still giving away, and yet his purse is never empty; he is 
still filling all the court of heaven, and all the creatures on 
the earth, and yet he is a fountain that still overflows.— 
Brooks, 
GOD’S ALL-SUFFICIENCY 


“Fear not! I will help thee.” Fear not! If there were 
an ant at the door of thy granary, asking for help, it would 
not ruin thee to give him a grain of thy wheat; and thou 
art nothing but a tiny insect at the door*of My all-sufficiency. 
I will help thee-—Spurgeon. 


GOD THE CHRISTIAN’S BANKER 


We will suppose that some opulent person makes the 
tour of Europe. If his money fall short, he comforts him- 
self with reflecting that he has a sufficient stock in the bank, 
which he can draw out at any time by writing to his cashiers. 
This is just the case, spiritually, with God’s elect. They are 
travelers in a foreign land, remote from home. Their treas- 
ure is in heaven, and God himself is their banker: when 
their graces seem to be almost spent and exhausted, when 
the barrel of meal and cruse of oil appear to be failing, they 
need but draw upon God by prayer and faith, and humble 
waiting. The Holy Spirit will honor their bill at sight ; and 
issue to them, from time to time, sufficient remittances to 
carry them to their journey’s end.—Salter. 


GOD'S ABUNDANCE LIKE THE OCEAN 


_ Though numberless drops be in the sea, yet, if one be tak- 
€n out of it, it hath so much the less, though insensibly ; but 


216 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


God, because he is infinite, can admit of no diminution. 
Therefore are men niggardly, because, the more they give, 
the less they have; but thou, Lord, mayst give what thou 
wilt without abatement of thy store. Good prayers never 
come weeping home: I am sure I shall receive either what I 
ask or what I should ask—Bp. Hall. 


EVERYTHING IN GOD 


What can we wish for in an heritage that is not to be 
found in God? Would we have large possessions? He is 
immensity. Would we have a sure estate? He is immuta- 
bility. Would we have a term of long continuance? He is 
eternity itself—Arrowsmith. 


TO HAVE GOD IS TO HAVE EVERYTHING 


To have a portion in God is to possess that which includes 
in itself all created good. The man who is in possession of 


some great masterpiece in painting or sculpture need not. 


envy others who have only casts or copies of it. The origi- 
nal plate or stereotype is more valuable than any impressions 
or engravings thrown off from it; and he who owns the 
former owns that which includes, is capable of producing, all 
the latter. . . . Surveying the wonders of creation, or 
even with the word of inspiration in his hand, the Christian 
can say, “Glorious though these things be, to me belongs that 


which is more glorious far. The streams are precious, but 


I have the Fountain; the vesture is beautiful, but the Weav- 
er is mine; the portrait in its every lineament is lovely, but 
that great Original, whose beauty it but feebly depicts, is 
mine, my own. ‘God is my portion; the Lord is mine in- 
heritance.’ To me belongs all actual and all possible good, 
all created and uncreated beauty, all that eye hath seen or 
imagination conceived: and more than that; for eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of 
man to conceive, what God hath prepared for them that love 
him. All things and beings, all that life reveals or death 
conceals, every thing within the boundless possibilities of 
creating wisdom and power is mine; for God, the Creator 
and Fountain of all, is mine.”—Dr. Caird. 


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GLORY AND RICHES OF GOD Q17 


FRIENDSHIP LIKE GOD 


Friendship is as God, 
Who gives and asks no payment. 
—Hovey. 


EARTHLY TREASURES BBP BUT DROSS '* 


What men call treasure and God calls dross—Lowell. 


THE SUFFICIENCY OF GOD 


God is a light that never darkened, an unwearied life that 
cannot die, a fountain always flowing, a garden of life, a 
seminary of wisdom, a radical beginning of all goodness.— 
Quarles. 

ALL WE NEED IN GOD 


God is all to thee; if thou be hungry, He is bread; if 
thirsty, He is water; if darkness, He is light; if naked, He 
is a robe of immortality —Augustine. 


GOD THE BOUNTIFUL PROVIDER 


Does not God provide for all the birds, and beasts, and 
fishes? Do not the sparrows fly from their bush and every 
morning find meat where they laid it not? Do not the young 
ravens call to God, and He feeds them? And were it rea- 
sonable that the sons of the family should fear the father 
would give meat to the chickens and the servants, his sheep 
and his dogs, but give none to them? He were a very ill 
father that should do so; or he were a very foolish son that 
should think so of a good father. But, besides the reason- 
ableness of this faith and this hope, we have infinite expe- 
rience of it; how innocent, how careless, how secure is in- 
fancy, and yet how certainly provided for! We have lived 
at God’s charges all our life, and have (as the Italian prov- 
erb says) sat down to meat at the sound of a bell, and 
hitherto He hath not failed us; we have no reason to adh 
Him for the future.—J. Taylor. 


- PROVIDENCE OF GOD 


GOD CARES 


What a vast proportion of our lives is spent in anxious 
and useless forebodings concerning the future—either our 
own or those of our own dear ones. Present joys, present 
blessings slip by and we miss half their flavor, and all for 
want of faith in Him who provides for the tiniest insect in 
the sunbeam. 

Oh, when shall we learn the sweet trust in God that our 
little children teach us every day by their confiding faith in 
us? We who are so mutable, so faulty, so irritable, so un- 
just; and He, who is so watchful, so pitiful, so loving, so 
forgiving, why cannot we, slipping our harfid into His each 
day, walk trusting over that day’s appointed path, thorny or 
flowery, crooked or straight, knowing that evening will bring 
us sleep, peace and home ?—Phillips Brooks. 


; 


GOD A PERPETUAL REFUGE 


a RE A ee ee eS ee 


God is a perpetual refuge and security to his people. His 
providence is not confined to one generation; it is not one 
age only that tastes of his bounty and compassion. His eye . 
never yet slept, nor hath he suffered the little ship of his 
church to be swallowed up, though it hath been tossed upon 
the waves; he hath always been a haven to preserve us,a 
house to secure us; he hath always had compassion to pity — 
us, and power to protect us; he hath had a face to shine, 
when the world hath had an angry countenance to frown.. — 
He brought Enoch home by an extraordinary translation 
from a brutish world; and when he was resolved to reckon _ 
with men for their brutish lives, he lodged Noah, the phoe-~ 
nix of the world, in an ark, and kept him alive as a spark in 

218 


PROVIDENCE OF GOD 219 


the midst of many waters, whereby to rekindle a church in 
the world; in all generations he is a dwelling-place to secure 
his people here or entertain them above.—Charnock. | 


GODS PLANS UNIFOLD GRADUALLY 


God’s plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold; 
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart— 
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold. 
And, if through patient toil we reach the land 
Where tired feet with sandals loose may rest, 
When we shall clearly know, and understand, 


I think that we shall say: “God knows the best.” 
—Selected. 


A DIVINITY THAT SHAPES OUR ENDS 


There’s a divinity that shapes our ends 


Rough-hew them how we will. 
—Shakespeare. 


GOD SENDS WHAT IS BEST 


He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower,— 
Alike they’re needful to the flower; 
And joys and tears alike are sent 

To give the soul fit nourishment. 

As comes to me or cloud or sun, 


Father! Thy will, not mine, be done. 
—S. F. Adams. 


PROVIDENCE LIKE SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 


As yonder tower outstretches to the earth 
The dark triangle of its shade alone 

When the clear day is shining on its top; 
So, darkness in the pathway of man’s life 
Is but the shadow of God’s providence, 

By the great Sun of wisdom cast thereon ; 
And what is dark below is light in heaven. 

—J. G. Whittier. 


990 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD’S WAYS NOT ALWAYS CLEAR 


God’s ways seem dark, but, soon or late, 
They touch the shining hills of day; 
The evil cannot brook delay, 
The good can well afford to wait. 
—John G. Whittier. 


GOD BEHIND THE SHADOW 


And behind the dim unknown ~~ 
Standeth God within the shadow, 
Keeping watch above His own. 


—Anon. 


GOD’S MYSTERIES OF GRACE 


O, lonely tomb in Moab’s land, 
O, dark Bethpeor’s hill, 

Speak to these curious hearts of ours, 
And teach them to be still! 

God hath His mysteries of grace— 
Ways that we cannot tell; 

He hides them deep, like the secret sleep, 


Of him He loved so well. 
—Mrs. C. F. Alexander 


GOD AT THE HELM 


My bark is wafted to the strand 
By breath Divine ; 

And on the helm there rests a hand 
Other than mine. 


—Dean Alford. 


NO ACCIDENTS WITH GOD 


Nothing with God can be accidental.—Long fellow. 


HISTORY THE REVELATION' OF PROVIDENCE 


History is the revelation of providencer-—Kossuth. 


PROVIDENCE OF GOD 221 


NOTHING CAN HAPPEN AGAINST GOD’S WILL 


As the smallest birds of the earth are not taken without 
the will of our heavenly Father, so nothing good or evil hap- 
pens to God’s children without his provident will—Caw- 
dray. 

GOD CAN OVERRULE MISTAKES 


The Providence that watches over the affairs of men 
works out of their mistakes, at times, a healthier issue than 
could have been accomplished by their wisest forethought. 
—J. A. Froude. 


GOD HAS AN ANTIDOTE FOR EVERY ILL 


Not a sorrow, not a burden, not a temptation, not a be- 
reavement, not a disappointment, not a care, not a groan or 
tear, but has its antidote in God’s rich and inexhaustible re- 
sources.—George C. Lorimer. 


GOD WORKS IN VARIOUS WAYS 


In all his dispensations God is at work for our good.— 
In prosperity he tries our gratitude; in mediocrity, our con- 
tentment; in misfortune, our submission; in darkness, our 
faith; under temptation, our steadfastness, and at all times, 
our obedience and trust in him. 

If in the day of sorrow we own God’s presence in the 
cloud, we shall find him also in the pillar of fire, brightening 
and cheering our way as the night comes on.—Selected. 


GOD'S PURPOSES NOT ALWAYS REVEALED 


God works in a mysterious way in grace as well as in na- 
ture, concealing His operations under an imperceptible suc- 
cession of events, and thus keeps us always in the darkness 
of faith—Fenelon. 


LOOKING BACK AT GOD’S PROVIDENCES 


Sometimes providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read ° | 


backwards.—John Flavel. 


222 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD'S PROVIDENICES HARD TO UNDERSTAND 


Must not the conduct of a parent seem very unaccountable 
to a child when its inclinations are thwarted; when it is put 
to learn letters; when it is obliged to swallow bitter physic; 
to part with what it likes, and to suffer and do, and see many 
things done, contrary to its own judgment? Will it not, 
therefore, follow from hence, by a parity of reason, that the 
little child man, when it takes upon itself to judge of paren~ 
tal providence—a thing of yesterday to criticize the econ- 
omy of the Ancient of Days—will it not follow, I say, that 
such a judge of such matters must be apt to make very er- 
roneous judgments, esteeming those things in themselves 
unaccountable which he cannot account for; and concluding 
of some things, from an appearance of arbitrary carriage to- 
wards him, which is suited to his infancy and ignorance, that 
they are in themselves capricious or absurd, and cannot pro- 
ceed from a wise, just, and benevolent God ?—Berkeley. 


THE DOCTRINE OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 


The moment we recognize God as supreme in power and 
infinitely good and loving toward all His intelligent crea- 
tures, that moment we admit the doctrine of universal and 
special providence—J. G. Holland. 


GOD’S WORKS AND WORD HARMONIZE 


In all God’s providences, it is good to compare His word 
and His works together; for we shall find a beautiful har- 
mony between them, and that they mutually illustrate each 
other.—Matthew Henry. 


ALL THINGS WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD 


Whoever studies Divine providence, whether it be in re- 
lation to the events that concern us, our families, the cities 
and nations to which we belong; whoever studies the rise 
and fall of nations and empires, whoever looks at the clash- 


a 
a 


~~ 


PROVIDENCE OF GOD 223 
SEHR THEE MT Gs GUE TN ERELULEMTTINGTES IYER Cone ahinee Ne hte nin ene 
ing of armies, will perceive that these are only parts of one 
grand movement. God is marching on to the accomplish- 
ment of an appointed end; namely, the subjugation of the 
world to Himself.—J. M. Reid. 


NO DISAPPOINTMENTS TO BELIEVERS 


There is many a thing which the world calls disappoint- 
ment; but there is no such thing in the dictionary of faith. 
What to others are disappointments are to believers intima- 
tions of the will of God.—John Newton. 


DISAPPOINTMENTS GOD’S APPOINTMENTS 


Some one has remarked that if we change the letter d in 


/ disappointments to h, we change the word to His appoint- 


ments. We should regard every disappointment as God’s 
appointment, or what is best for us; and then we will be 
“filled with all joy and peace in believing.”—J. Gilchrist 
Lawson. 


THE UNIVERSE A COMPLEXITY OF PROVIDENCES 


I believe not only in “special providences,” but in the 


_ whole universe as one infinite complexity of “special provi- 


dences.’’-—Charles Kingsley. 


GOD OUR HIDING PLACE 


All spiritual strength for ourselves, all noble ties to one 
another, have their real source in that inner sanctuary where 
God denies His lonely audience to none. Its secrets are 
holy ; its asylum, inviolate; its consolations, sure; and all are 
open to the simple heart-word, “Thou art my hiding-place.” 


_—James Martineau. 


SERVE GOD IN THE WAY HE LEADS 


Be an observer of providence; for God is showing you 
ever, by the way in which He leads you, whither He means 


994 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


to lead. Study your trials, your talents, the world’s wants, 
and stand ready to serve God now, in whatever He brings 
to your hand.—Horace Bushnell. 


SAFE IN THE ARMS OF GOD 


We are never less alone than when we are in the society 
of a single, faithful friend; never less deserted than when 
we are carried in the arms of the All-Powerful—Fenelon. 


GOD'S PROVIDENCES UNFOLD SLOWLY 


The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes 
long, and you must read a great way before you understand 
their meaning—Matthew Henry. 


GOD SUPPLIES OUR NEEDS 


Let us always remember that God has never promised to 
supply our wishes, but only our wants, and these only as 
they arise from day to day—Alexander Dickson. 


IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND 


It was a touching answer of a Christian sailor, when 
asked why he remained so calm in a fearful storm, when 
the sea seemed ready to devour the ship. He was not sure 
that he could swim. “But,” he said, “though I sink I shall 
only drop into the hollow of my Father’s hand; for He holds 
all these waters there.”—William Arnot. 


A REMARKABLE PROVIDENCE 


In the days of the Reformation, Brentius of Wurttem- 
berg, being pursued by persecuting soldiers, escaped into a 
hay-loft, and concealed himself under the hay. The soldiers 
entered the place, and ran their bayonets up through the 
hay, without detecting him. Every day, for fourteen days, a 
hen laid an egg in the hay, which was his only means of sup- 


PROVIDENCE OF GOD 225 


port. Then the supply ceased, which he took as an intima- 
tion of Providence, that it would now be safe to come out 
from his concealment. He found that the soldiers had just 
left the town; and he was able to seek a place of safety.— 
Foster. 


PROTECTED THROUGH A DREAM 


Josephus relates that Alexander the Great, while engaged 
at the siege of Tyre, sent a demand for tribute and auxilia- 
ries to the High Priest at Jerusalem. He refused because he 
was under treaty obligations to Darius. At this Alexander 
was enraged and vowed vengeance upon the Jews. After 
the reduction of Gaza, Alexander, with his army thirsting 
for plunder, hastened to Jerusalem. As they drew near the 
city they met a great procession of the people in white robes, 
headed by the priests in fine linen, and led by the high 
priest in purple and scarlet clothing, his miter on his head, 
and on his breast the golden breast-plate, upon which the 
name of God was engraved. Alexander, alone, in advance 
of his army, adored that name and saluted the high priest. 
The great captain’s friends were astonished at him, and 
supposed he had become insane. A more effectual victory 
had been gained than if the city had withstood a siege. 
Years before, Alexander had a dream in which he saw the 
high-priest in this very dress. Now he recognized the hand 
of God. The high-priest, himself, was instructed in a dream 
how to receive him.—Foster. 


WARNED BY A PIGEON 


A good man, who had served God many years, was sit- 
ting one day, with several persons, eating a meal upon a 
bank very near a pit; and he was nearest to the mouth of it. 
Whilst he was eating, a pigeon came, and fluttered in his 
breast, and slightly pecked him. In about five minutes, it 
came again, and did the same. The old man then said, mie 
will follow thee, pretty messenger, and see where thou com- 
est from.” He rose up to follow the bird; and, while he was 
away, the banks of the pit fell in, and his companions were 


2296 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


all killed. This happened at a mine near Swansea, in 
Wales.—Foster. 


NATIONS TRUSTING GOD'S PROVIDENCES 


When the Spanish Armada was overthrown by the storm, 
England caused a medal to be struck, with the inscription, 
“Aflavit Deus, et dissepantur:’ “God blew on them, and 
they were scattered.” On all her coin is stamped, “Det 
Gratia”’ The United States has, since the war of the Re- 
bellion, put on her coin the legend, “In God we trust.”-~ 
Foster. 


q 


WILL OF GOD 


THY WILL BE DONE 


Thy will, O God, is best, 

By Thee the victory’s won, 

In Thy strong will we find our rest, 
Thy will, O God, be done. 


Thy will, O God, is strong, 

Resist Thy power can none, 

Thy throne is raised above all wrong, 
Thy will, O God, be done. 


Thy will, O God, is law, 

Thy word through worlds hath run, 
Teach us to say with holy awe, 

Thy will, O God, be done. 


Thy will, O God, is love, 

Thou art our shield and sun, 

In earth below, in heaven above, 
Thy will, O God, be done. 


Thy will, O God, is life, 
Thy life and ours is one, 
Be Thou our master in the strife, 
Until Thy will is done. 
—Hugh Thomson Kerr. 


THE WILL OF GOD 


Thou sweet beloved will of God, 

My anchor ground, my fortress hill, 
My spirit’s silent, fair abode, 

In Thee I hide me and am still. 
O Will that willest good alone, 


Lead Thou the way, Thou guidest best; 
A little child, I follow on, 


And trusting, lean upon Thy breast. 


227 


4 * 


228 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Upon God’s will I lay me down, 
As child upon its mother’s breast ; 
No silken couch, or softest bed 
Could ever give me such sweet rest. 
, —Madam Guyon. 


GOD'S WILL TO GIVE WHAT iS BEST 


He hath willed everything that may be for our good, if 
we perform the condition he hath required; and hath put it 
upon record, that we may know it and regulate our desires 
and supplications according to it. If we will not seek him, 
his immutability cannot be a bar, but our own folly is the 
cause, and by our neglect we despoil him of this perfection 
as to us, and either imply that he is not sincere, and means 
not as he speaks; or that he is as changeable as the wind, 
sometimes this thing, sometimes that, and not at all to be 
confided in. If we ask according to his revealed will, the 
unchangeableness of his nature will assure us of the grant; 
and what a presumption would it be in a creature dependent 
upon his sovereign, to ask that which he knows he has de- 
clared his will against; since there is no good we can want, 
but he hath promised to give, upon our sincere and ardent 
desire for it—Charnock. 


OUR WILLS SHOULD CONFORM TO GOD'S WILL 


If a man lay a crooked stick upon an even level ground, , 
the stick and ground ill suit together, but the fault is in the © 
stick; and in such a case, a man must not strive to bring the 
even ground to the crooked stick, but bow the crooked stick — 
even with the ground. So it is between God’s will and ours, © 


there is a discrepancy and jarring betwixt them; but where 
is the fault? or rather, where is it not? not in the will of 


God, but in our crooked and corrupt affections; in which — 


case we must not like Balaam seek to bring God’s will to 
ours, but be contented to rectify and order the crookedness 
of our wills, by the rectitude and sanctity of the will of God, 
which must be the ruler and moderator of our wills; for 
which cause we are to cry out with David, “Teach me, O 


J 
4 
vi 
; 
; 
4 
4 
; 


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‘ 
Be 
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WILL OF GOD 229 


Lord, to do Thy will;” and with the whole Church of God, 
in that pattern of wholesome words, “Thy will be done in 
earth, as it is in heaven;” never forgetting that too of Christ 
Jesus Himself in the midst of His agony and bloody sweat, 
“Father, not my will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22, 42). 
—Augustine, 354-'430. 


GOD’S WILL IS NEVER ILL 


What is God’s will 
Can ne’er be ill: 
In darkest night 
He makes it light 
For those who trust; 
Help them He must. 
—Anon. 


OUR WILL BLENDED WITH GOD'S 


Oh, be my will so swallow’d up in Thine, 
That I may do Thy will in doing mine! 
—H. More. 


HOW GOD'S WILL SHOULD BE DONE 


A Sabbath-school teacher, instructing his class on that 
petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth, 
as it is in heaven,” said to them, ““You have told me, my 
_ dear children, what is to be done—the will of God; and 
where it is to be done—on earth; and how it ts to be done— 
as it is done in heaven. How do you think the angels and 
the happy spirits do the will of God in heaven, as they are 
to be our pattern?” The first child replied, “They do it im- 
mediately ;’ the second, “They do it diligently ;” the third, 
“They do it always;” the fourth, “They do it with all their 
hearts;” the fifth, “They do it all together.” Here a pause 
ensued, and no other children appeared to have any answer, 
but after some time a little girl arose and said, “Why, sir, 
they do it without asking any questions.”—-New Cyclopcedia 
of Anecdote. 


ANGER OF GOD 


GOD'S ANGER EXPLAINED 


One day Sadi was reading the Holy Scriptures, but sud- 
denly he closed the book, and looked stern and serious. 

Allmed perceived it, and asked the youth: “What ails 
thee, Sadi? why does thy countenance change?” 

Sadi answered, “The Scripture speaks here of the wrath 
of God, and in other places He is called Love. This seems 
hard and contradictory.” 

Then his master said calmly, “Shall not the Scriptures 
speak humanly to human beings? Thou takest no offense 
when mortal members are attributed to the Most High.” 

“No,” said the youth, “that is innocent f1rative lan- 
guage; but anger i 

Then Allmed interrupted him, saying, “I will relate to 
thee a tale. There lived two rich merchants in Alexandria 
who had two sons of equal age. They sent them to Ephesus 
on affairs of their trade. Both youths had been well taught 
in the faith of their fathers. 

“When they had lived for some time at Ephesus, they 
were dazzled by the splendor and the pleasures of the town, 
and were seduced to deny the faith of their fathers, and to 
bow down in idolatrous worship in the temple of Diana. 

“A friend in Ephesus communicated this to Kleon, one of 
the fathers in Alexandria. When Kleon had read the letter, 
he was grieved in his heart, and very wroth with the young 
man. Then he went to the other and told him of their 
apostasy and his grief. 

“But the other laughed, and said, ‘If my son carry on his 
trade the better for it, I shall easily console myself.’ 

“Then Kleon turned away from him, and his anger in- 
creased.” 


230 


=—— ee 


On A geen at 


OL age oe 


ee ee eee 


ANGER OF GOD 231 


Now Allmed said to the youth, “Which of these two fath- 
ers seemeth to thee the wiser and better?” 

Sadi answered and said, ““He who was angry.” 

“And who,’ asked his tutor, “was the most loving 
father ?” 

The youth answered again, ‘““He who was angry.” 

“But was not Kleon angry with his child?” asked Allmed. 

And Sadi answered, “Not with his child, but with his 
apostasy and transgression.” 

“What seemeth to thee to be the origin of such anger at 
transgression?” asked the master. 

And the youth answered, “The holy love of truth.” 

“Behold, my son,” said the old man, “if thou only art able 
to explain the divine by the divine, thou wilt no longer take 
offense at the human word.” 

When Sadi had sat for some time in thought, he looked 
at his tutor; and Allmed said to him, “Thou seemest not yet 
satisfied,—a question is on thy lips.” 

Then the youth answered and said, “Yes, my father, it 
seemeth to me very daring to speak in such a way of the 
Highest and Purest.” 

“Indeed,” said the old man, “it is a human expression, 
and I commend the fear of thy heart. But, behold, my 
Sadi, when the faithless son, after acknowledging his fall, 
may have thought in an hour of repentance of the time of 
his innocence and his pious father, how thinkest thou would 
then the heart of his father have appeared to him, even if he 
were not wroth?” 

“Ah,” said the youth, “I understand thee, my father. His 
father must have appeared angry to him—and the Holy 
Scriptures speak to a fallen race.”—F, A. Krummacher. 


GOD’S ANGER IS RIGHTEOUS 


At this first step we might reason on the testimony if we 
pleased, instead of accepting it, and raise the objection that 
to imagine passion in God, especially so turbid a passion as 
anger, conflicts with our notions of His character, and de- 
_ grades Him in our apprehensions. Beware! remember that 


232 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


in forming an estimate of the character and proceedings of 
God, we are but little children forming an estimate of the 
character and proceedings of a man of matured experience. 
Were it not more reasonable, as well as more reverent, to ac- 
cept what He says, and to leave Him afterwards to clear up 
any mystery which may envelop His nature? I can indeed 
conceive in Him nothing turbid, impetuous, or impulsive, 
such as sullies the clearness of the human will. But this I 
can conceive, that there is in Him some high perfection 
(more incomprehensible to my finite capacity than the spec- 
ulations of an astronomer to a peasant child), of which 
anger is the most adequate exponent to my mind, and which 
I must be content to think of and speak of as anger, or else 
to remain in total ignorance of it. And this also I can— 
not only conceive, but most readily assent to, that in an abso- 
lutely perfect nature there should be an utter abhorrence of, 
and antipathy to, moral evil, most justly represented to sim- 
ple minds by the terms “anger,” “curse.” We have never 
seen a perfect character; no perfect character, save one, 
ever moved upon the earth: but the righteous man, who is 
striving after and approximating to perfection, has often 
crossed our path: and surely we have marked in him, that 
the more righteous he is the more doth he abhor (in the 
language of Holy Scripture) everything that is evil. What 
is the effect upon one who breathes habitually the atmos- 
phere of communion with God, of catching in the current 
tidings of the day the intelligence of some awful outburst of 
depravity? When such an one passes on an errand of mercy 
through the crowded alleys of a great city, and the shouts 
of malignant execration and profaneness ring in his ear, or 
scenes of impurity are paraded before his eye, with what 
feeling does he encounter these symptoms of human degra- 
dation? Are they not like a foul odor to his nostrils, or a 
jarring note to his ear, or an abortion to his sight? Does 
he not turn away with loathing, and recoil from such scenes 
and such sounds with an antipathy strong in proportion to 
his goodness? And is it, then, so hard to conceive that in 
perfect goodness there may be a recoil from moral evil, 
something similar in kind to this, though infinitely stronger 


Se ee 


oN IE i Ee ee 


ae 


ip ae a i De ct oe a en ea 


- 


ANGER OF GOD 233 


in degree? And is not such a recoil righteous, and a token 
of righteousness >—Goulburn. 


GOD’S ANGER CAUSES MAN’S UNREST 


It shows and exerts itself by cursing of enjoyments. We 
may, like Solomon, have all that wit can invent, or heart de- 
sire, and yet at last, with the same Solomon, sum up all our 
accounts in “vanity and vexation of spirit.” 

There is a “pestilence that walks in darkness,” a secret, in- 
visible blow, that smites the first-born of all our comforts, 
and straight we find them dead, and cold, and sapless; not 
answering the quickness of desire, or the grasp of expecta- 
tion. God can send a worm to bite the gourd, while it flour- 
ishes over our heads; and while He “gives riches,” deny a 
“heart to enjoy them.” 

For whence is it else, that there are some who flourish 
with honors, flow with riches, swim with the greatest af- 
fluence of plenty, and all other the materials of delight; and 
yet they are as discontented, as dissatisfied as the poorest 
of men? 

Care rises up and lies down with them, sits upon their 
pillow, waits at their elbow, runs by their coaches; and the 
grim spirits of fear and jealousy haunt their stately houses 
and habitations. 

I say, whence is this, but from a secret displeasure of 
God, which takes out the vitals, the heart, and the spirit of 
the enjoyment, and leaves them only the caput mortuum of 
the possession.—South, 1633-1716. 


GOD CAUSES MEN TO FEEL HIS WRATH 


God’s anger exerts itself by embittering of afflictions. 
Every affliction is of itself a grievance, and a breach made 
_ upon our happiness; but there is sometimes a secret energy, 
that so edges and quickens its afflictive operation, that a blow 
leveled at the body sha!l enter into the very soul. Asa bare 
arrow tears and rends the flesh before it; but if dipped in 
poison, as by its edge it pierces, so by its adherent venom it 
festers. 


me “ 


934 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


We do not know what strength the weakest creature has 
to do mischief, when the Divine wrath shall join with it; and 
how easily a sma!‘ calamity will sink the soul, when this 
shall hang weights upon it. 

What is the reason that David is sometimes so courag- 
eous, that, “though he walks through the shadow of death, 
yet he will fear no evil”? And at another time, “God no 
sooner hides His face, but he is troubled,” as Psalm 30:7. 
What is the cause that a man sometimes breaks through a 
greater calamity, and at another time the same person fails 
and desponds under a loss of the same nature? I say, 
whence can this be, but that God infuses some more grains 
of His wrath into one than into the other? 

Men may undergo many plagues from God, and yet by the 
enchantment of pleasures, the magic of worldly diversions, 
they may, like Pharaoh, harden their hearts, and escape the 
present sting of them. But when God shall arm a plague 
with sensible, lively mixtures of His wrath, believe it, this 
will not be enchanted away; but the sinner, like those magi- 
cians (whether he will or no), must be forced to confess, 
“that it is the finger of God,” and consequently must bend 
and lie down under it. 

God may cast a man into prison, nail him to the bed of 
sickness, yet still He may continue master of his com- 
forts; because the sun may shine while the shower falls. 
The soul may see the light of God’s countenance, while it 
feels the weight of His hand. 

But for God to do all these things in anger, and to mark 
the prints of His displeasure and His indignation upon 
every blow; this alters the whole dispensation, and turns it 
from a general passage of Providence into a particular de- 
sign of revenge. 

It is like a deep water, scalding hot, which as it drowns, so 
at the same time it redoubles its fatal influence, also burns 
to death, An unwholesome air will of itself make a man 
sick and indisposed; but when it is infected, and its native 
malignity heightened with a superadded contagion, then 
presently it kills. 

And such a difference is there between afflictions in them- 


— ee A ae eo 


ANGER OF GOD 235 


selves and afflictions as they are fired, poisoned, and en- 
livened with God’s wrath.—South 1633-1716. 


THE TERRIBLENESS OF GODS WRATH 


The greatness of divine wrath appears in this, that though 
we may attempt it in our thoughts, yet we cannot bring it 
within the comprehensions of our knowledge. 

And the reason is, because things, which are the proper 
objects of feeling, are never perfectly known, but by being 
felt. We may speak indeed high words of wrath and ven- 
geance, but pain is not felt in a discourse. We may as well 
taste a sound, and see a voice, as gather an intellectual idea 
of misery; which is conveyed, not by apprehension, but by 
smart; not by notion, but by experience. 

Survey the expressions of Scripture, and see it there 
clothed and set forth in “fire and brimstone,” in “the worm 
that never dies,” in “utter darkness,” in “weeping and wail- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth.” But what are all these but 
shadows! mere similitudes, and not things! condescensions, 
rather than instructions to our understanding! poor figura- 
tive essays, where, contrary to the nature of rhetoric, the 
figure is still beneath the truth. 

Fire no more represents God’s wrath than the picture of 
fire itself represents its heat; and for the proof of this, let 
the notional believer be an unanswerable argument, who 
reads, sees, and hears all these expressions, and yet is not 
at all moved by them; which sufficiently shows that there is 
no hell in the description of hell. 

But now, there is no man who has actually passed under 
a full trial of God’s wrath; none alive who ever encountered 
the utmost of God’s anger; and if any man should here- 
after try it, he would perish in the trial, so that he could not 
report his experience. This is a furnace that consumes 
while it tries; as no man can experimentally inform us what 
death is, because he is destroyed in the experiment.—South, 
1633-1716. 


236 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD - 


DIRECT BLOWS FROM GOD'S WRATH 


It inflicts immediate blows and rebukes upon the con- 
science. There are several passages in which God converses 
with the soul immediately by Himself; and these are always 
the most quick and efficacious, whether in respect of com- 
fort or of terror. | 

That which comes immediately. from God, has most of 
God in it. As the sun, when he darts his beams in a direct 
perpendicular line, does it most forcibly, because most im- 
mediately. 

Now there are often terrors upon the mind, which flow 
thus immediately from God, and therefore are not weakened 
or refracted by passing through the instrumental convey- 
ance of a second cause; for that which passes through a 
thing is ever contracted according to the narrowness of its 
passage. God’s wrath, inflicted by the creature, is like 
poison administered in water, where it finds an allay in the 
very conveyance, 

But the terrors here spoken of, not being inflicted by the 
intermediate help of anything, but being darted forthwith 
from God Himself, are by this incomparably more strong 
and piercing. 

When God wounds a man by the loss of an estate, of his 
health, of a relation, the smart is but commensurate to the 
thing which is lost, poor and finite. But when He Himself 
employs His whole omnipotence, and is Himself both the 
archer and the arrow, there is as much difference between 


this and the former, as when a house lets fall a cobweb, and 


when it falls itself upon a man. 

God strikes in that manner that He swears; never so ef- 
fectually as when only “by Himself.” A man striking with 
a twig does not reach so dreadful a blow as when he does it 
with his fist; and so makes himself not only the striker but 
the weapon also. 

These immediate blows of God upon the soul seem to be 
those things that in the Psalms (38:2) are called 
“God’s arrows:” they are strange, sudden, invincible amaze- 


ments upon the spiric, leaving such a damp upon it, as de- 


ee ee a 


ANGER OF GOD 237 


fies the faint and weak cordials of all creature-enjoyments. 
The wounds which God Himself makes, none but God Him- 
self can cure——South, 1637-1716. 


LAW HAS ITS ORIGIN IN GOD 


Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her 
seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the 
world.—Richard Hooker. 


GOD NOT MERCIFUL ONLY 


A God all mercy is a God unjust.— Young. 


GOD’S ANGER A DIVINE PERFECTION 


Lord Shaftesbury attempts to satirize the Scripture rep- 
resentations of the Divine character. ‘One would think,” 
he says, “it were easy to understand that provocation and 
offense, anger, revenge, jealousy in point of honor or power, 
love of fame, glory, and the like, belong only to limited be- 
ings, and are necessarily excluded from a Being which 1s 
perfect and universal.” That many things are attributed 
to the Divine Being in a figurative style, speaking merely 
after the manner of men, and that they are so understood by 
Christians, Lord Shaftesbury must have well known. We 
do not think it lawful, however, so to explain away these ex- 
pressions as to consider the Great Supreme as incapable of 
being offended with sin and sinners, as destitute of pleasure 
or displeasure, or as unconcerned about His own glory, the 
exercise of which involves the general good of the universe. 
A being of this description would be neither loved nor 
feared, but would become the object of universal contempt. 

It is no part of the imperfection of our nature that we 
are susceptible of provocation and offense, of anger, of jeal- 
ousy, and of a just regard to our own honor. Lord Shaftes- 
bury himself would have ridiculed the man, and still more 
the magistrate, that should have been incapable of these 
properties on certain occasions. They are planted in our 


938 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


nature by the Divine Being, and are adapted to. answer val- 
uable purposes. If they be perverted and abused to sordid 


‘ends, which is too frequently the case, this does not alter 


their nature, nor lessen their utility. What would Lord 


‘Shaftesbury have thought of a magistrate who should have 


witnessed a train of assassinations and murders without be- 
ing in the least offended at them, or angry with the perpetra- 
tors, or inclined to take vengeance on them for the public 
good? What would he think of a British House of Com- 
mons which should exercise no jealousy over the encroach- 
ments of a minister; or of a king of Great Britain who 
should suffer with perfect indifference his just authority to 
be contemned.—Andrew Fuller, 1754-1815.’ 


FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 


GOD’S FAITHFULNESS LIKE THE SEA 


God’s truth and faithfulness “are a great deep.” They 
resemble the ocean itself; always there—vast, fathomless, 
sublime, the same in its majesty, its inexhaustible fullness, 
yesterday, to-day, and forever; the same in calm and storm, 
by day and by night; changeless while generations come and 
pass; everlasting while ages are rolling away.—Richard 
‘Fuller. 


GOD A NEVER-FAILING FRIEND 


It is the saying of Euripides, that a faithful friend in ad- 
versity is better than a calm sea to a weather-beaten mariner, 
Indeed, the world is full of false lovers, who use their 
friends as we do candles, burn them to the snuff, and when 
all their substance is wasted, trample them under their fect, 
and light others; but God to His chosen is as the ivy clasp 
ing about a wall, which will as soon die as desert it. Ex- 
tremity doth but fasten a trusty friend; whilst he, as a well- 
wrought vault, is the stronger by how much more weight 
he beareth. Though many men are as ponds, dry in the heat 
of summer, when there is most need of them, yet the blessed 
God dealeth not so with His saints: but His help is nearest 
_ when their hardships are greatest. When they walk in the 
valley of the shadow of death, He is with them—Swin- 
nock, 1673. 


TRUSTING GOD'S PROMISES 


If you were to spend a month feeding on the precious 
promises of God, you would not be going about with your 
_ heads hanging down like bulrushes, complaining how poor 
_ you are; but you would lift up your heads with confidence, 


239 


040 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 
and proclaim the riches of His grace because you could not 
help it—D. L. Moody. 


GOD’S PROMISES FULFILLED 


When we come to tell the completed story of our lives, 
we shall have to record the fulfillment of all God’s prom- 
ises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were 
built on them.—Selected. 


ALL NATURE PROCLAIMS GOD'S FAITHFULNESS 


We ask Nature to say—whether her God, who is our 
God, is true to his word? whether he ever says, and fails to 
do? By the voices of the sun, the stars, the hills, the val- 
leys, the streams, the cataracts, the rolling thunders, and 
the roaring sea, she returns a majestic answer. Spring 
comes with infant Nature waking in her arms; Summer 
cotnes bedecked with a robe of flowers; Autumn comes with 
her swarthy brow, crowned with vines, and on her back 
the sheaves of corn; Old Winter comes with his shivering 
limbs, and frozen locks, and hoary head; and these four 
witnesses—each laying one hand on the broad table of Na- 
ture, and lifting the other to heaven—swear by him that 
liveth for ever and ever, that all which God hath said, God 


shall do.—Dr. Guthrie. 
BELIEVING GOD'S PROMISES 
I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eter- 
nity on them.—Watts. 
GOD NEVER FORSAKES UNLESS FORSAKEN 


God never forsakes a man unless He is first forsaken by 
him.—Augustine. 


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Fe eS ee ee 


PRU A PUNE SS, Ol GO) 


THE YEARS CONFIRM GOD'S TRUTHFULNESS 


Time that weakens all things else has but strengthened the 
impregnable position of the believer’s faith and hope and 
confidence. And as, year by year, the tree adds another ring 
to its circumference, every age has added the testimony of 
its events to this great truth. “The grass withereth, and the 
flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord shall endure for- 
ever.”—Thomas Guthrie. 


GOD REVEALS TRUTH AFTER TRUTH 


God hides nothing. His very work from the beginning is 
revelation,—a casting aside of veil after veil, a showing unto 
men of truth after truth. On and on from fact Divine He 
advances, until at length in His Son Jesus He unveils His 
very face——George MacDonald. 


GOD’S TRUTH TOO SACRED FOR SKEPTICS 


God’s truth is too sacred to be expounded to superficial 
worldliness in its transient fit of earnestness —F. W. Rob- 
ertson. 


GOD UNLIKE SERTORIUS OR PERTINAX 


Of Sertorius it is said that he performed his promises by 
words only; and of the Emperor Pertinax, that he was rath- 
-er kind-spoken than beneficial to any. Not so the Almighty. 
—Trapp. 


241 


FATHERHOOD OF GOD 


MEANING OF GOD'S FATHERHOOD 


Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It 
speaks of the communication of a life and the reciprocity of 
love. It rests upon a Divine act, and it involves a human 
emotion. It involves that the Father and the child shall 
have kindred life—the Father bestowing, and the child pos- 
sessing a life which is derived; and because derived, kin- 
dred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in likenes to the 
Father that gave it. And it requires that between the Fath- 
er’s heart and the child’s heart there shall pass, in blessed in- 
terchange and quick correspondence, answering love, flash- 
ing backwards and forwards, like the lightning that touches 
the earth, and rises from it again—Alexander Maclaren. 


ONLY CHRISTIANS CAN: CALL GOD FATHER 


You cannot call God father till communion with Christ be 
enjoyed; and when this is enjoyed your privileges become 
wonderful. Now you may look on God and say, “Thou art 
my portion.” Now you may go to God and say, “Thou art 
my Father.” Now you may behold the love of God and say, 
“This is my treasure;” and the covenant of God, and say, 
“This is my storehouse;” and the providence of God, and 


say, “This is my shield.” Now you may look on Christ and © 


say, “This is my Redeemer ; He is mine and I am His; He 

lives in me, and I live in Him; He dwells with me, and I 

dwell with Him; He sups with me, and I feed on Him; His 

blood is my refuge and my heart is His mansion. He doth 

graciously traffic in my heart by His Spirit, and I can as 

freely traffic with heaven by His intercession.’’—Sedgwick. 
242 


— ao 


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FATHERHOOD OF GOD 243 


THE RELATIONSHIP OF FATHER 


The relation which the Most High sustains to His intelli- 
gent and accountable creatures is too comprehensive and too 
intimate to be perfectly imaged by any earthly tie; but in the 
relation which runs through this parable (1.e. of The Prodi- 
gal Son, St. Luke 15:11-32) it finds its nearest equivalent. 
And what amongst ourselves is fatherhood? It is that rela- 
tion which identifies greatness with littleness, which makes it 
quite natural that the arm which wields the battle-sword 


should gently rock the sleeping babe, which secures from 


contempt the master of sentences, the sage, the orator, 
though he babble idle rhymes in his infant’s ear. It is that 
relation which lives in the loved one’s joy or honor, and 
which is wounded in his grief or his disgrace; which feels 
no pride like a son’s promotion, and which, gazing at the 
blood-stained garment, cries, “It is my son’s coat, an evil 
beast has devoured him: I will go down to him in the grave 
sorrowing;’ but which would rather that the evil beast had 
devoured him, than that he should live to blight his princi- 
ples or forfeit a virtuous fame. It is that relation amongst 


men which toils and denies itself, and does not grudge the 


long journeys and the sleepless nights which enable the 
father to lay up for the children; and both in heaven and 
earth, it is that relation which delights in being trusted and 
which desires to be loved in return; which cannot be asked 


‘ | too many favors, or be entrusted with too many confidences, 


which seeks one gift only, “My Son, give me thine heart,” 
and hears no language more pleasing than “My Father, 


| Thou art the guide of my youth. Father, forgive my tres- 
/ passes, and give me this day my daily bread.’”’—Hamilton. 


FATHERHOOD IMPLIES LOVING CARE 


Every one takes care of his own; the silly hen, how 
doth she bustle and bestir herself to gather her brood under 


her wing when the kite appears! No care like that which 


Nature teacheth. How much more will God, who is the 


Father of such dispositions in His creature, stir up His 


944 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


whole strength to defend His children? “He said, They 
_are my people, so He became their Savior,” as if God had 
said, Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my 
own people are thus misused before my face? I cannot 
bear it. The mother as she sits in her house hears one 
shriek, and knows the voice, cries out, Oh, ’tis my child! 
Away she throws all, and runs to him. Thus God takes the 
alarm of His children’s cry, “I heard Ephraim bemoaning 
himself,” saith the Lord; his cry pierced His ear, and His 
ear affected His bowels, and His bowels called up His power 
to the rescue of him.—Gurnall, 1617-1679. . 


FINDING GOD AS OUR FATHER 


What another being is life when we have found out our 
Father; and if we work, it is beneath His eye, and if we 
play, it is in the light and encouragement of His smile. 
Earth’s sunshine is heaven’s radiance, and the stars of night 
as if the beginning of the beatific vision; so soft, so sweet, 
so gentle, so reposeful, so almost infinite have all things 
become, because we have found our Father in our God.— 
F, W. Faber. 


MOSLEMS DO NOT CALL GOD FATHER 


The Mohammedans have ninety-nine names for God, but 
among them all they have not “our Father.”—Selected. 


SONSHIP IMPLIES ACCESS. TO..GOD 


During the war, President Lincoln was so besieged with 
applicants on various errands that he could not give au- 
dience to all, and men of influence could not see him when 
they wished. Many went away from the White House dis- 
appointed, unable to see the President. But there was a 
loved son of the President, little ““Tad,’’ who came and went 
when he pleased. Such is the privilege of the sons of God. 
—Foster. 


as a eS 


FATHERHOOD OF GOD 245 


FATHERHOOD IMPLIES LOVE AND PITY 


“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear Him.” “Like as a father’”—but how is that? 
You see yonder dusky tents along the stream, and knots of 
cattle grazing on the neighboring hills; but the chieftain 
stays at home. In the cradle lies the babe whom a foster- 
mother is bringing up, for his own mother died on the day 
when he was born; and hand in hand with his widowed sire 
walks a little boy full of love, full of notions bright and 
strange, asking hard questions, telling dreams; till a sudden 
change comes across the scene, and in the effort to be a play- 
mate to Rachel’s little son, for a moment the patriarch for- 
gets his cares and griefs and, as men would say, his dignity. 

How is it that a father pitieth his children? An old king 
is seated at the city gate. Not far away a battle is going 
forward—a battle on which hangs the monarch’s crown, 
perhaps his very life. And there is panic through the town, 
_the helpless running to and fro, and the fearful looking forth 
of those who think they already see their houses in the 
flames and red slaughter rushing through the streets. But 
now posting towards the city are seen the little clouds, the 
dust of separate couriers, and all rush to hear the tidings. 
“All’s well!’ exclaims the first; “Victory!” shouts the sec- 
ond; but with fierce impatience, demands the monarch, “‘is 
the young man Absalom safe?” and, trarisfixed by the fatal 
truth in his cry of anguish, the cheers of exultation suddenly 
subside, and as he staggers up to his solitary chamber, the 
joyous crowd fall silent, and even the conquerors when they 
at last return, like the perpetrators of a crime, slink through 
the gate crestfallen. 

How is it that a father pitieth his children? For long 
there has been only one son at home, and you might suppose 
there never had been more than one; all is so complete and 
orderly, and the new-come servants and the neighbors never 
speak of any other. But along the highroad there is this in- 
stant traveling a gaunt and haggard figure, his filthy tattered 


WS, clothing showing little traces of bygone foppery, and in his 


looks not much to betoken gentle breeding; so shabby and 


246 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


so reprobate that those who pity common beggars shake 
_the head or slam the door on this one. But though the dogs 
bark at him and charity turns away from him; though the 
meanest hut rejects him, and though the passengers scowl at 
his petitions, one heart awaits him, and keeps for him the 
original compartment, warm, ample, and unfilled. Yonder, 
as he has surmounted the summit of the hill and is gazing 
down on the long forsaken homestead and hesitating wheth- 
er he may venture nearer, which quick eye is that which has 
recognized him a great way off, and what eager step is this 
which runs so fast to meet him? and who is this that in the 
folds of his kingly mantle hides the ragged wanderer, and 
clasps him to his bosom, and weeps upon his neck the tears 
of enraptured affection, and cuts short his confession with a 
call for the best robe and a command for instant festival? . 
Oh, what a love is this which the heavenly Father hath unto | 
His children !—Hamilton, 1814-1867. 


SONSHIP IMPLIES PREEMINENCE 


A king is sitting with his council deliberating on high 
affairs of state involving the destiny of nations, when sud- 
denly he hears the sorrowful cry of his little child who has 
fallen down, or been frightened by a wasp; he rises and 
runs to his relief, assuages his sorrows and relieves his fears. 
Is there anything unkingly here? Is it not most natural? 
Does it not even elevate the monarch in your esteem? Why 
then do we think it dishonorable to the King of kings, our 
heavenly Father, to consider the small matter of His chil- 
dren? It is infinitely condescending, but is it not also super- 
latively natural that being a Father He should act as such? 
—Spurgeon. 

, GOD'S WATCH-CARE OVER HIS CHILDREN 

One great object of revelation was to show us God as 
our Father. It is thus the Son reveals Him when He says 
that no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to 
whom the Son revealeth Him. And there are many pas- 


a=) 2 
ain aed 


FATHERHOOD OF GOD Q4'7 


sages of Scripture that point us to this delightful revelation 
—such as, “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear Him;” “TI will be to him a father, and 
he shall be to Mea son.” “The steps of a good man are 
ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way.” You 
have, doubtless, seen a kind and tender parent taking the 
little child by the hand when just beginning to walk, turning 
the steps aside when obstacles are in the way, directing the 
child where to walk, and bending over the little one with 
fond delight. I have seen young parents laughing with joy 


' when they have observed the first steps which the little ones 


take—they delighted in their way. And so God is repre- 
sented as bending from above over us, and ordering the steps 
of a good man, watching his pathway, holding him by the 
hand, leading him in the way he should go, and delighting in 
his way. And never was a tender and loving parent so de- 
lighted in marking the footsteps of a child, as God in watch- 
ing the ways of a good man—delighted at all his efforts 
in the paths of piety and peace. 

Such declarations present the doctrine of the watch-care 
of God over them that fear Him; or, as it is sometimes 
called, the doctrine of a special providence. This doctrine 
teaches us that God is especially watchful over those who 
love Him; and that, where men fear and serve Him, He has 
special care toward them—watches their pathway and di- 
rects their movements.—Simpson. 


DID NOT FEAR HIS FATHER 


There is a beautiful story in ancient poetry. A great 
warrior, the hero of Troy, clad in fierce armor, stretches out 
his arms to embrace his child before he goes to the field of 
battle. The child is afraid of the dazzling helmet and nod- 
ding crest, and stern, warlike aspect of his father, and 


shrinks back in terror and alarm. But there is a loving, 


tender heart beating within that panoply of steel. The father 
unbinds his glittering helmet, lays aside his fierce armor, 
and comes to his child with outstretched arms and tender 


words of love. And the child shrinks from him no longer, 


248 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


but runs to his arms, pillows its head upon his bosom, and 
_ receives his parting embrace and kiss. So men are afraid 
of God when he appears in his majesty and terribleness. 
They think of his omnipotence, his glory, the awfulness of 
his throne, the terrors of his justice, and shrink back from 
him. But as this father laid aside his fierce armor and came 
to his child in all the tenderness of paternal affection, so 
God veils his glory and splendor and awfulness, and reveals 
himself to his children in the sweetest aspect of love.— 
Anon. 


GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN 


The least degree of sincere sanctification, being an effect 
of regeneration, is a certain sign of adoption, and 
may minister a sure argument to him that has it, 
that he is the adopted child of God. Now, as parents love 
their children, not so much for their wit and comeliness, or 
the like qualities, as because they are theirs, so does God 
love His children: yea, had He not loved them before they 
had any good qualities in them, for which He might affect 
them, they had never come to have any such, Parents 
delight as much in their young ones as in those that be at 
man’s estate, as well in those that are not able to earn the 
bread that they eat, as in those that are able to do them the 
best service. Nor is any father so unnatural, that because his 
child, being weak and sickly, is therefore somewhat way- 
ward, especially being a good-natured and otherwise dutiful 
child, will for that cause the less either regard or affect it. 
No, we are wont rather to be the more affectionate towards 
them when it is so with them. Yea, I say not what infirmity, 
but what disease, almost, is there so loathsome as will keep 
a mother from tendering and tending her child? In like 
manner it is with our heavenly Father whose love goes in- 
finitely beyond the love of any earthly father or mother 
whatsoever. For as a father, says the Psalmist, is pitiful 
unto his children, so the Lord is pitiful to those that fear 
Him. And the most natural mother, the kindest and dearest 
parent that is, may sooner forget or not regard the fruit of 
their own body, than He can forget or not regard them. 


— 


EI SSIES Pe = 


See 


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Se eS 


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FATHERHOOD OF GOD 249 


“And I will spare them,” says He, “that fear Me, and think 
on My name, as a man spares his own son that serves him.” 
He loves and delights in His little weak ones, His young 
babes in Christ, that can scarce almost creep, much less go 
well alone yet, as well as in His well-grown ones, that are 
able to help and to tend others. For the Lord’s delight is in 
all those that fear Him, and that rely upon His mercy. He 
is content to accept at their hands what they are able. Asa 
little done by a son gives his father much better contentment 
than a great deal more done by a mere stranger or servant. 
And there is a difference between a son and a servant; that 
a servant, if he cannot do his master’s work, his master will 
not keep him, he must go, seek him some other service; 
whereas a son, albeit he be not able to do ought, yet he is 
not therefore cast off; his father keeps him not for the ser- 
vice he does or can do him, but he keeps him because he is 
his son. Yea, it is not the wants, and infirmities, and imper- 
fections, or the remainders of sin and corruption in God’s 


children, that can cause God to cast them off or to abhor 


them. “Our corruptions shall not hurt us, if they do not 
please us,” says Augustine. Nor is it so much our corrup- 
tions as our pleasing of ourselves in them, that makes God 
to be displeased with us. Any beginning of sincere santify- 
ing grace, then, argues God’s child; and a weak child of God 
being yet a child of God, as well as a strong, has good cause 


and great cause therein to rejoice.—Gataker, 1574-1654. 


THE TENDER MEANING OF FATHER 


Christ especially revealed Him as a Father. In His first 
and last words Christ calls Him “Father.” Asa Father God 
thinks of us, loves us, works for us, cares for us, protects 
us, provides for us in the future. Father is the most en- 
dearing appellation in which He is made known unto us. “I 


should have been a French atheist,” said Randolph, “had it 


not been for one recollection, and that was when my de- 
parted mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause 
me on my knees to say, “Our Father which art in heaven.’ ” 
“This little word, Father,’ says Gurnall, “lisped by faith in 


250 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


prayer by a real Christian, exceeds the eloquence of Demos- 
thenes, Cicero, and all the famous speakers in the world.” 
“My life,” says Evans, “hangs by a single thread; but that 
thread is in a Father’s hand.” “I never fear,” said a little 
child, “when my Father is with me.” ) 


“My Father God!” that gracious sound 


Dispels my guilty fear; j 
Not all the harmony of heaven ‘ 
Could so delight my ear.” \ 


—John Bate. : 


Pee mh Se 
ma 


INVISIBILITY OF GOD 


GOD IS A SPIRIT 
There is no other passage in Scripture besides this (John 


4:24) where it is expressly declared that God is a Spirit ; 


yet throughout the whole of Scripture we are led to infer 
that He is so, and our duty to Him is everywhere founded 
on the belief and knowledge of this attribute of His nature. 
When we affirm God to be a Spirit, we not only distinguish 
Him from all bodily substance, but, in the same manner as 
the soul greatly excels the body in the superior powers of 
life, understanding, knowledge, activity, so we must con- 
ceive of God as of a Being excelling in an infinitely higher 
proportion, not only the souls of men, but also all other in- 
tellectual natures or spirits whatsoever—Samuel Clarke, 
1675-1720. 
AN INVISIBLE RULER 

Krummacher says, that an idolatrous tribe chose a Jew 
named Abiah to rule over them, who was greatly grieved at 
the idolatry of his subjects, and angry because they would 
not reform. The Lord said to him, “Thinkest thou T cannot 
destroy their idols? and yet I suffer the sun to shine upon 
them. Go thou, and do likewise.” Abiah suffered them, 
and had a successful reign. When he came to die, he told 
the people that his son would be their king; that they had 
never seen his face, but should know his government by 
the fruits thereof. The people promised obedience, kept the 
promise, and prospered greatly, though they had never seen 
their king. Wise commands came from the palace. Like the 
beams of the sun, the kind influence of the invisible mon- 
arch spread over the nation, reaching every child of want. 


- Then they all marveled, and said, “We sée him not: how 
_ can he see us?” Then the people longed to see and bless 


him, as they did their idols. They made images of him. At 
last, they came together before the palace-gates, and im- 


¥ plored, “Oh! let our lord the king suffer us to see his face.” 


251 


952 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Then the king came forth in simple raiment; and the people 
rejoiced and wondered, and said, “We know thy face;” for 
he had often walked among them unknown. Then the king 
said, “Now you see that I am a man like you. Think ye 
that this mortal flesh has reigned over you? Not so: that 
which has guided you ye cannot see; neither can I. Can ye 
see wisdom, kindness, and justice? Now ye see me, but ye 
do not see them. Judge ye what is my earthly form. Can 
the visible create the invisible? That which is in me, also, 
is not mine, but His who made me your king.” After this, 
the people returned to their homes, blessing their king. 
They broke in pieces their pictures, images, and idols, and 
believed in Him who is invisible-—Foster. 


COULD NOT SHOW THEM GOD 

At Buhapurum, a child about eight years old, who had 
been educated in Christianity, was ridiculed on that account 
by some heathens older than himself. In reply, he repeated 
what he had been taught respecting God. “Show us your 
God,” said the heathen. “I cannot do that,’ answered the 
child; “but I can soon show you yours.” Taking a stone, 
and daubing it with some resemblance of a human face, he 
placed it on the ground, and pushed it toward them with his 
foot. “There,” said he, “is such a god as you worship,’— 
Foster. 

-GOD INVISIBLE LIKE THE WIND 

A poor dumb boy, in whom I was interested, and whom I 
had been seeking to impress with the fact of the being of a 
God, told me that he had been looking everywhere for God, 
but could not find him; “there was God—wno.” I seized a 
pair of bellows, and blew a puff at his hand, which was red 
with cold on a winter’s day. He showed signs of displeas- 
ure; told me it made his hands cold, while I, looking at the 
pipe of the bellows, told him I could see nothing; “there was 
wind—no!” He opened his eyes very wide, stared at me, 
and panted; a deep crimson suffused his whole face, and a 
soul, a real soul, shone in his strangely altered countenance, 
while he triumphantly repeated—“God like wind! God like 
wind!’—C. Elizabeth. 


ae san eS 


THE KINGDOM OF GOD 


GOD'S KINGDOM WITHIN 


The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our 
willing whatever God wills, always, in every thing, and with- 
out reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will 
is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but 
what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.-—Fenelon, 


BECOMING PART OF GOD'S KINGDOM 


_ Were it not well, then, to begin with the substance, to 
learn to apprehend the reality of that kingdom which is all 
around us now, whether we recognize it or not,—to take our 
aims and endeavors into it, that they may be made part of 
it, however small,—to surrender ourselves to it, that our 
lives may do something towards its advancement, and that 
we may become fellow-workers, however humble, with all 
the wise and good who have gone before us, and with Him 
who made them what they are?—J. C. Shairp. 


ENTERING GOD’S KINGDOM 


If you want to work for the kingdom of God, and to bring 
it, and enter into it, there is just one condition to be first ac- 
cepted. You must enter into it as children, or not at all— 
John Ruskin. 


253 


NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD 


THE EYE OF GOD 


When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in 
at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jum- 
bled in that crowd, that they open themselves regularly, 
though there is no great space for that either; and that they 
give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie be- 
fore us, some even at a vast distance from us, both of their 
nature, color, and size; and by a secret geometry, from the 
angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance 
of all objects, both from us and from one another; if to this 
we add the vast number of figures that we receive and re- 
tain long and with great order in our brains, which we eas- 
ily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourses, we 
shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an infinite mind 
should have the universal view of all things ever present be- 
fore it—Bp. Burnet. | 


GOD A SUN 


“The Lord God is a sun” conveys a striking and impres- 
sive truth when we think of the sun only in his obvious 
character as a source of light and heat. But what new 
energy is given to this magnificent emblem when we learn 
from astronomy that he is a grand center of attraction, and 
when we, in addition, take in that sublime generalization that 
the sun is the ultimate source of every form of power ex- 
isting in the world! The wind wafts the commerce of every 
nation over the mighty deep; but the heat of the sun has 
rarefied the air, and set that wind in motion. The descend- 
ing stream yields a power which grinds your grain, turns 
your spindles, work your looms, drives your forges; but it 
is because the sun gathered up the vapor from the ocean, 


254 


NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD 255 
—<—<<<<—{_ J$———— ee 


which fell upon the hills, and is finding its way back to the 
source whence it came. The expansive energy of steam 
propels your engines; but the force with which it operates 
is locked up in the coal (the remains of extinct forests 
stored among your hills), or is derived from the wood that 
abounds in your forests, which now crown and beautify 
their summits. Both these primeval and these existing for- 
ests drew their subsistence from the sun: it is the chemical 
force resident in his rays which disengaged their carbon 
from the atmosphere, and laid it up as a source of power for 
future use. The animal exerts a force by muscular contrac- 
tion ; he draws it from the vegetable on which he feeds; the 
vegetable derives it from the sun, whose rays determine its 
growth. Every time you lift your arm, every time you take 
a step, you are drawing on the power the sun has given you. 
When you step into the railway-carriage, it is the sun-power 
that hurries you along. When gentle breezes fan your lan- 
guid cheek, and when the resistless tornado levels cities in 
its fury, they are the servants of the sun. What an emblem 


of Him in whom we live and move, and have our being !— 
Prof. Green. 


GOD IS LIGHT 


Suppose the case of a cripple who had spent his life in a 
room where the sun was never seen. He has heard of its 
existence, he believes in it, and indeed, has seen enough of its 
light to give him high ideas of its glory. Wishing to see the 
sun, he is taken out at night into the streets of an illuminated 
city. At first he is delighted, dazzled; but after he has had 
time to reflect, he finds darkness spread amid the lights, and 
he asks, “Is this the sun?” He is taken out under the starry 
sky, and he is enraptured; but, on reflection, finds that night 
covers the earth, and again asks, “Is this the sun?” He is 
carried out some bright day at noontide, and no sooner does 
his eye open on the sky than all question is at an end. There 
is but one sun. His eye is content: it has seen its highest 
object, and feels there is nothing brighter. So with the soul: 
it enjoys all lights, yet amid those of art and nature, is still 
enquiring for something greater. But when it is led by the 


e 


256 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


reconciling Christ into the presence of the Father, and He 
lifts up upon it the light of His countenance, all thought of 
anything greater disappears. As there is but one sun, so 
there is but one God. The soul which once discerns and 
knows Him, feels that greater or brighter there is none, 
and that the only possibility of ever beholding more glory is 
by drawing nearer.—Dr. W. Arthur. | 


DOES RADIUM TELL US ABOUT GOD? 


The article by Dr. Howard A. Kelly in The Sunday 
School Times, on Radium, had a special interest for me, as 
last winter, while being shown some of the properties of 
radium by a scientific friend, I was deeply impressed and de- 
lighted by their analogy to the attributes of God. While Dr. 
Kelly has mentioned the more striking of these characteris- 
tics, there are a few other resemblances that seemed so 
beautiful to me, I would like to speak of them. 

The particles of radium were shown to me ina glass vial, 
looking like dull, gray bits of clay: the room was darkened, 
and the colorless, lifeless atoms glowed with a wondrous 
brilliancy, and with a soft, violet radiance that I have seen 
only in occasional flashes of lightning. The sudden tears 
cames to my eyes, as the thought flashed upon me—‘‘Such 


will be the change of the resurrection! Sown in dishonor, | ‘ 


raised in glory!” 

Again, there are two, I believe only two, of the attri- 
butes of God, with which He is positively identified : Christ 
said, “God is Truth”; and John says, “God is Love.” In the 


Bible, love is symbolized by red, and truth by blue—the 
combination of red and blue gives violet—the incomparable — 


hue of radium, Also, red is the first color in the solar spec- 


trum, and violet the last,—and Jesus said, “I am Alpha and . 


Omega, the first and the last!’ 


There is one more significant likeness: Radium pene- % 


trates all known substances—but one! Hence, to keep other 


chemicals from being affected by it, the glass vial containing 
radium must be wrapped in lead-foil, lead being the one sub- 
stance impervious to its influence, and a fit type of the one ~ 


NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD = 257 
18 SU el iach hea core 0 wg ene Ne EROS See et Eee 


unpardonable sin—Unbelief—which alone can resist the 
power of Christ. 

As radium, the most mysterious and powerful of ele- 
‘ments, is among the last to be discovered, so the reign of 
our Lord Jesus Christ will be the last to crown the earth 
with glory. 

- I do not like to think these resemblances are mere coinci- 
dences—they are to me Nature’s proof of Divinity ——A 
Washington, D. C., Reader. : 

(The scientific accuracy of the above statements has been 
verified by a high authority—The Editor.)—Sunday School 
Times. | 

GOD A ROCK 


What are the reasons for which our God is compared to 
a rock? First, then, a rock is steadfast: its stability, as 
contrasted with the flowing waters of the sea or the shift- 
ing sands of the desert, is the first thing that strikes us. 
“With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” 
Next, a rock is often chosen as the site of a stronghold, 
from the security it gives. Men build their castles upon a 
rock, for purposes of defense; the wise man built his house 
upon the rock for safety in the storm: “The Lord js my 
rock and my fortress.” Again: in Palestine we find that the 
rock often contained a cave, or cleft, used as a hiding-place: 
“Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust.” In such 
a cleft Moses was hidden: “I will put thee in a cleft of the 
rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by” 
(Exod. 33:22). A rock became also a shelter in an- 
other sense: “The shadow of a great rock in a weary land ;” 
“Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” And the rock 
that gave security was also a source of refreshment: for “he 
opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;’ so that they 
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that 
rock was Christ.”—Cameron. 


GOD A SHIELD 


‘A shield is for defense and safeguard of the body in 
time of battle: God is the defense and safeguard of His 


258 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


people in the conflicts of life. A shield is not only to de- 
fend and preserve one part of the body, but every part: 
God defends the souls of His saints in their entirety. A 
shield is used to keep that part of the body that is struck 
at by the enemy; it is a movable piece of armor, that a 
skillful hand can turn this way or that way, to take the 
blow or arrow, according as he sees it directed against him: 
so God by His truth, spirit, etc., protects His people— 
Keach, 


ALL NATURE SYMBOLIZES GOD 


All things in the natural world symbolize God, yet none 
of them speak of Him but in broken and imperfect words. 
High above all He sits, sublimer than mountains, grander 
than storms, sweeter than blossoms and tender fruits, nobler 
than lords, truer than parents, more loving than lovers. 
—Cawdray. 


NAMES OF GOD 


1. JEHOvAH.—It expresses self existence and unchange- 
ableness. It is the incommunicable name of God, which the 
Jews superstitiously refused to pronounce, always substitut- 
ing in their reading the word Adonai, Lord. Hence it is 
represented in our English version by the word Lorp, 
printed in capital letters. 

Jau.—Probably an abbreviation of the name Jehovah, is 
used principally in the psalms. It constitutes the concluding 
syllable of hallelujah, praise Jehovah. 

God gave to Moses His peculiar name, I am THAT I Am 
(Ex. 3:14), from the same root, and bearing the same 
fundamental significance as Jehovah. | ; 

2. EL, might, power, translated God, and applied alike to 
the true God, and to false gods (Isa. 44:10). 

3. Elohim and Eloah, the same name in its singular and 
plural forms; derived from the Hebrew word, signifying, 
to fear, reverence. “In its singular form it is used only in 
the latter books and in poetry.” In the plural form it is 
sometimes used with a plural sense, for gods; but more 
commonly, as a pluralis excellentie, for God. It is applied 


NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD) 259 


to false gods, but preéminently to Jehovah, as the great 
object of adoration. 

4. Aponal, the Lord, a pluralis excellentie, applied ex- 
clusively to God, expressing possession and sovereign do- 
minion; equivalent to xvpwr¢ Lord, so frequently applied 
to Christ in the New Testament. 

5. SAppal, Almighty, a pluralis excellentie. Sometimes 
it stands by itself (Job 5:17) ; and sometimes combined with 
a preceding El (Gen. 17:1). . 

6. Exryon, Most High, a verbal adjective signifying to go 
up, ascend (Ps. 9:3; 21:8). 

7. The term TzeBaotH, of hosts, is frequently used as 
an epithet qualifying one of the above-mentioned names of 
God. Thus, Jehovah of hosts, Jehovah, God of hosts 
(Amos 4:13; Ps. 24:10). Some have thought this equiva- 
lent to God of battles; the true force of the epithet, how- 
ever, is “Sovereign of the stars, material hosts of heaven, 
and of the angels their inhabitants.” 

8. Many other epithets are applied to God metaphori- 
cally, to set forth the relation he sustains to us and the offices 
he fulfils; as King, Lawgiver, Judge, Rock, Fortress, 
Tower, Deliverer, Shepherd, Husbandman, Father, —A. A. 
Hodge. 


GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 


GOD’S ETERNAL HATRED FOR SIN 


God Himself, we have always understood, hates sin with 


a most authentic, celestial, and eternal hatred. A hatred, — My 


a hostility, inexorable, unappeasable, which blasts the 
scoundrel, and all scoundrels ultimately, into black annihila- 


tion and disappearance from the sum of things. The path i 


of it is the path of a flaming sword: he that has eyes may 
see it, walking inexorable, divinely beautiful and divinely 
terrible, through the chaotic gulf of human history, and 
everywhere burning, as with unquenchable fire, the false and 
the deadworthy from the true and lifeworthy; making all 
human history, and the biography of every man, a God's 
Cosmos in place of a Devil’s Chaos. So it is in the end; 
even so, to every man who is a man, and not a mutinous 
beast, and has eyes to see-—Thomas Carlyle. 


SIN LOATHSOME TO GOD 


It is not every unclean thing that offends the sight: while — q 
the slightest stain upon some things will excite in us deep — 


dislike, the feeling depends entirely upon the nature of 


the thing, and the purpose to which it is applied. We pass 
by an unclean stone unnoticed ; it is unconscious of its state, 
and meant to be trampled under foot. But rising a step 
higher in the scale of creation, to an unclean plant, we be- 
come conscious of a slight emotion of dislike; because we ~ 
see that which might have pleased the eye, and have beauti- — 
fied a spot in the creation, disfigured and useless. An un- 


clean animal creates our dislike still more, for, instead of DI 
proving useful in any way, it is merely a moving pollution. i 
But an unclean human being excites our loathing more than - 
all; it presents our nature in a light so disgusting that it a. 


260 


GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 261 


lessens our pity for him if he be miserable, and excites in 
us ideas of disease, contamination, and pain. But an un- 
clean spirit—it is loathsome above all things, it is the soul 
and essence of pollution, it is the most unclean object in the 
universe, it is the spectacle which excites the deep dislike of 
God Himself. His dislike of it is the more intense, because 
originally it was pure and capable of making perpetual ad- 
vances towards divine perfection; whereas now it presents 
itself to His eye, robbed of all its purity, and defiled in all 

its powers, a fountain of pollution —Salter. 


GOD DOES NOT CAUSE SIN 


A man has a servant who is a thief, and yet the servant 
would be esteemed for an honest man; so, to try him, his 
master leaveth his purse full of money before him; if his 
servant steal it, is he not a thief, and does he not declare 
himself to be such a one? Yes, undoubtedly. And now, 
who made him a thief, the master or the money which was 
left where he might come by it? Surely neither of them, 
for the money is the good creature of God; and when the 
master put it before his servant, he did not compel him 
to take it and steal it. If this servant had been an honest 
man, he would not have touched it, or if he had taken it, he 
would have brought it back to his master and not have kept 
it; but seeing that the servant was already a thief, and 
had his heart given to theft, when he had the occasion to put 
into execution the wicked affection of his heart, he did it. 
And whereas he did it no sooner, that was because he 
had not the occasion and means; for if occasion had been 
sooner offered to him, and if he had found whereto to 
reach out his hand, he would not have kept it in; and when 
he began to put forth his hand, he not only then began to 
be a thief, but he began to declare himself what he was. As 
we have the example in Judas, who was a thief a long time, 
but he never showed it until he had an opportunity: even 
so, although God hath given the occasion to man to prove 
and try him, and to cause him to make known that which is 
in his heart, it followeth not therefore that God hath done 


262 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


the sin or is the Author of it, or that we must impute the 
fault to Him and not to the man who hath committed it.— 
Cawdray, 1609. ~ 


MEN SIN UNLESS GOD RESTRAINS THEM 


There is a vast difference between the sun being the 
cause of the lightsomeness and warmth of the atmosphere, 
and the brightness of gold and diamonds, by its presence 
and positive influence; and its being the occasion of dark- 
ness and frost, in the night, by its motion, whereby it de- 
scends below the horizon. The motion of the sun is the 
occasion of the latter kind of events; but it is not the 
proper cause, efficient, or producer of them, though they 
are necessarily consequent on that motion, under such cir- 
cumstances; no more is any action of the Divine Being the 
cause of the evil’s wills. If the sun were the proper cause 
of cold and darkness, it would be the fountain of these 
things, as it is the fountain of light and heat: and then 
something might be argued from the nature of cold and 
darkness, to a likeness of nature in the sun; and it might 
be justly inferred, that the sun itself is dark and cold, and 
that his beams are black and frosty. But from its being the 
cause no otherwise than by its departure, no such thing 
can be inferred, but the contrary; it may justly be argued, 
that the sun is a bright and hot body, if cold and darkness 
are found to be the consequence of its withdrawment;’and 
the more constantly and necessarily these effects are con- 
nected with and confined to its absence, the more strongly 
does it argue the sun to be the fountain of light and heat. 
So, inasmuch as sin is not the fruit of any positive agency 
or influence of the Most High, but, on the contrary, arises 
from the withholding of His action and energy, and, under 
certain circumstances, necessarily follows on the want of 
His influence; this is no argument that He is sinful, or His 
operation evil; but, on the contrary, that He and His agency 
are altogether good and holy, and that He is the fountain 
of all holiness. It would be strange arguing, indeed, be- 
cause men never commit sin, but only when God leaves them 


eee ae 


= 
= eat “ fart ca ese es — ae 
— SAI Oh a ee Ne a ge a ee en ee Ne eT 


GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 263 


to themselves, and necessarily sin when He does so, that 
therefore their sin is not from themselves, but from God; 
and so, that God must be a sinful being: as strange as it 
would be to argue, because it is always dark when the sun 
is gone, and never dark when the sun is present, and there- 
fore all darkness is from the sun, and that his disk and 
beams must needs be black.—Jonathan Edwards, 1637-1716. 


GOD PERMITS BUT DOES NOT APPROVE OF SIN 


The wisdom of God is seen in this, that the sins of men 
shall carry on God’s work; yet that He should have no 
hand in their sin. The Lord permits sin, but doth not ap- 
prove it. He hath a hand in the action in which sin is, but 
not in the sin of the action. As in the crucifying of Christ, 
so far as it was a natural action, God did concur; if He 
had not given the Jews life and breath, they could not have 
done it: but as it was a sinful action, so God abhorred it. 
A musician plays upon a viol out of tune: the musician 
is the cause of the sound, but the jarring and discord is 
from the viol itself. So men’s natural motion is from God, 
but their sinful motion is from themselves. A man that 
rides on a lame horse, his riding is the cause why the horse 
goes, but the lameness is from the horse itself. Herein is 
God’s wisdom, the sins of men shall carry on His work, 
yet He hath no hand in them.—Watson, 1696. 


GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN 


God is no more the Author of sin than the sun is the 
cause of ice; but it is in the nature of water to congeal into 
ice when the sun’s influence is suspended to a certain degree. 
So there is sin enough in the hearts of men to make the 
earth the very image of hell, and to prove that men are no 
better than incarnate devils, were He to: suspend His in- 
fluence and restraint. Sometimes, and in some instances, 
He is pleased to suspend it considerably; and, so far as He 
does, human nature quickly appears in its true colors—~ 
Newton, 1725-1807. 


2964 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


THE PURITY OF GOD 


Any ethical system which teaches that God is so pure 
that there is a vast void between Him and the needy, sinful 
soul, and which has a tendency to make men fear to go to 
Him on account of His great purity, is a false system. God’s 
purity is one of His most glorious attributes, but it is used 
to slander and misinterpret His nature. A right view of 


God is one which presents Him as a Being who, just in: 


the proportion that we are impure, draws us to Him that 
we may be purified. 

When a man is hungry, he looks for him who has the 
loaf. When a man is sick, he looks for him who has the 
medicine. When a man is perishing in the stream, and has 
struggled to the shore, and cannot get out, he cries to him 
who has strength. The soul that is sinful goes to Him who 
has purity to be.cleansed. And a view that presents any 
other God but One who says, “Behold, in Me is your salva- 
tion,” is a false view. 

Any view which presents God as a Being whose justice 
shallemake sinners, who wish to return to Him, unable to do 
so, is a false view. Public sentiment and public law are 
like ramparts around a city. As long as a man is inside 
of the ramparts, they defend him, but the moment he is 
outside of them, they treat him as an enemy, and he cannot 
get back, but is exposed to the sweep of artillery. As long 
as a man stands inside of the ramparts of public sentiment 
and law, he gets along well enough, but the moment he 
chances to get outside of them, allemen declare him to be 
an outcast. You might as well attempt to climb up the 
steep sides of Mount Sinai, as up the human heart when it 
has set itself to punish those who have done wrong. Public 
sentiment and law may save a man before he has done 
wrong, but they damn him after he has done wrong. But 
not so with God. The way to Him is down hill. Up hill 
is down hill if it be toward God! If we are in danger, in 
Him is safety. If we have done wrong, in Him is the 
remedy. He is the sun that shows us, when we are in 


darkness, where to go; He is the bright and morning star — 


~GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 265 


that makes our dawn and twilight come to us; He is our 
way; He is our staff; He is our shepherd; He is our scep- 
tered king, to defend us from our adversaries ; He is All, in 
all, to all !—-Beecher. 


SIN MAY GRIEVE AWAY GOD’S SPIRIT 


The obstinacy of Pharaoh was properly his own. It is 
true, we are assured that God hardened his heart; but we 
are not thereby warranted to suppose that God is the Author 
of the sin, which He hates and forbids. It is written again, 
that “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth 
He any man,” and the scripture is to be interpreted con- 
sistently with itself. It would be absurd to ascribe dark- 
ness or ice to the agency of the sun, though both inevitably 
follow if the light and heat of the sun be withdrawn to a 
certain degree. A degree of heat is necessary to keep 
water in that state of fluidity which we commonly suppose 
essential to its nature; but it is rather essential to the nature 
of water to harden into ice, if it be deprived of the heat 
which is necessary to preserve it in a fluid state; and the 
hardest metals will melt and flow like water, if heat be 
proportionably increased. Thus it is with the heart of 
fallen man. In whatever degree it is soft and impressive, 
capable of feeling and tenderness, we must attribute it to 
the secret influence of the Father and Fountain of light; 
and if He is pleased to withdraw His influence, nothing 
more is needful to its complete indurationNewton, 1725- 
1807. 


GOD LOVES SINNERS BUT HATES SIN 


A mariner in a storm would very fain save his goods, 
but, to save the ship, he heaves them overboard. A tender- 
hearted mother corrects her child, whereas the stripes are 


. deeper in her heart than in its flesh. As it was said by a 


judge about to give sentence of death upon an offender, 
“I do that good which I would not:” thus God, more loving 
than the careful mariner, more tender than the indulgent 


‘966 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


mother, and more merciful than the pitiful judge, is will- 
"ingly unwilling that any sinner should die. He punisheth 
no man, as he is a man, but as he isa sinful man. He loves 
him, yet turns him over to justice. It is God’s work to 
punish, but it is withal His “strange work,” His strange 
and foreign act, not “His good will and pleasure,” His 
nature and property being to have mercy on all men.— 
Spencer, 1658. 


GOD’S EYE ALWAYS ON SIN 


How dreadful is the eye of God on him who wants to 
sin! Do you know about Lafayette, that great man who 
was the friend of Washington? He tells us that he was 
once shut up in a little room in a gloomy prison for a great 
while. In the door of his little cell was a very small hole 
cut. At that hole, a soldier was placed day and night to 
watch him. All he could see was the soldier’s eye; but 
that eye was always there. Day and night, every moment 
when he looked up, he always saw that eye. Oh! he says, 
it was dreadful! There was no escape, no hiding: when he 


lay down, and when he rose up, that eye was watching him. — 
How dreadful will the eye of God be upon the sinner, as it — 


watches him in the eternal world forever !—Dr. J. Todd. 


~ ie ER ON Te tet 


THE INDWELLING OF GOD 


GOD’S INDWELLING A HEAVEN 


How far from here to heaven? 
Not very far, my friend; 
A single hearty step 
Will all thy journey end, 
Hold there! where runnest thou? 
Know heaven is in thee! 
Seekest thou for God elsewhere? 
His face thou’lt never see. 
—Angelus Silesius. 


FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD 


To creatures made in God’s image, and renewed in God’s 
image, God Himself must ever be the standard of com- 


Be pleteness. Between God and all His creatures there is, we 
. feverently acknowledge, a vast difference; but the pitcher 
_ May be full as well as the river, and the hand may be full 


as well as the storehouse. There is a fullness which is as 
_ teally the attribute of that which in capacity is small, as of 
_ that which in capacity is infinite. The sweet little flower 
| “forget-me-not,” is as full of color as the bright blue sky 
over its tiny head. The vine of the cottager may be as 


full of fruit as the vineyard of the wealthy vine-grower. 


_ The baby which smiles on its mother’s breast may be as. 
_ full of joy as the seraph before the throne. The vast dif- 


| ference which exists between God’s nature and ours does 


Not prevent that nature in some respects being a standard. 
The fullness of man may be as the fullness of God. God 
is full, and man in his capacity may be full as God.—S. 
| (Martin. 
ae 267 


068 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 
e 


EVIDENCES OF GOD'S INDWELLING 


You go past the dwelling of your neighbor. The door ; 
+5 closed that is wont hospitably to be opened. The windows — 
are all shut. The curtains are down, There is no sound 
of pleasure in the yard. There is no coming or going of in- \ 
dustrious feet. And you say, “The master is gone.” Did ‘ 
you see him go? You did not. Have you searched the ' 
house? You have not. But there were certain tokens ‘ 
when he was present by which you judged he was there. — 
To-morrow you go past the same dwelling again, and the ~ 
door stands open, the windows are no longer closed, the 
curtains are rolled up, there are merry sounds ringing in 
the house and in the yard, and there is smoke rising from © 
the chimney. Now there is quite a different state of things ; 
and you say, “Ah! the father has got home.” Because — 
there are so many things that indicate it. These effects | 
are evidences to you that he is present. Now, the same 
thing is true of the chamber, the dwelling of a man’s soul. — 
When God is present, certain things bear witness, and the © 
witnessing of these things is evidence of God present with — 
us, and-it is to be taken as a manifestation of that presence. ‘ 
——Beecher. 


AT HOME WITH GOD 


His thoughts, His will, His love, His judgments are 
men’s home. To think His thoughts, to choose His will, 
to judge His judgments, and thus to know that He is in us, 
with us, is to be at home. And to pass through the valley of 
the shadow of death is the way home, but only thus, that as — 
all changes have hitherto led us nearer to this home, the © 
knowledge of God, so this greatest of all outward changes— 
for it is but an outward change—will surely usher us into | 
a region where there will be fresh possibilities of drawing 
nigh in heart, soul, and mind to the Father of us all—_ 


George MacDonald. | 


ee 


ee SS ~er 


THE INDWELLING OF GOD 269 


“AUGUSTINE FOUND GOD WITHIN 


I sought Thee at a distance, and did not know that Thou 
wast near. I sought Thee abroad, and behold Thou wast 
within me.—St. Augustine. 


~ RECEPTACLES OF GOD 


We would be receptacles of Thine influence. As the sun 
shines in the dewdrop according to its measure, so shine in 
us. Fill the whole of our little orbs with Thy presence, so 
that Thy life shall augment ours, and sustain it—Beecher. 


sce % 


OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 


GOD TO US AS SUN TO FLOWERS 


When the sun shines bright and warm, all the flowers 
of the field open and display their leaves, to receive him 
into their bosoms; but, when night comes, they fold to- 
gether, and shut up all their glories: and, though they were 
like so many little suns shining here below, able, one would 
think, to force a day for themselves; yet, when the sun 
withdraws his beams, they droop, and hang the head, and 
stand neglected, dull and obscure things, So hath it fared 
with us: while God hath shone upon us with warm and 
cherishing influences, we opened, and spread, and flour- 
ished into a great pomp and glory; but He only hides His 
face, draws in His beams, and all our beautiful leaves shut 
up or fall to the ground, and leave us a bare stalk, poor and 
contemptible—Bp. Hopkins. 


WHY GOD ALLOWS TRIALS 


God often lets His people reach the shore as on the planks 
of a shipwrecked vessel. He deprives us of the cisterns 
sn order to make us drink out of the fountains of waters. 
He frequently takes away our supports, not that we may 
fall to the ground, but that He may Himself become our 
rod and our staff. The embarrassments of His people are 
only the festive scaffoldings on which His might, His faith- 
fulness, and His mercy celebrate their triumphs.—Krum- 
macher. | 

TRUSTED HIS OWN STRENGTH 


William Rufus, having seen the coast of Ireland from 
some rocks in North Wales, said, “I will summon hither 


all the ships of my realm, and with them make a bridge — 


to attack that country.” This threatening being reported 
to Murchard, Prince of Leinster, he paused a moment, and 
270 


Sn “arene a 4 ee ot a 


—_———— >-- 


OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 271 


then said, “Did the king add to this mighty threat, if God 
please?” On being assured he made no mention of God in 
his speech, he replied, “Sure that man puts his trust in 
human, not in divine power, I fear not his coming.” —Buck. 


ai ‘THERESA’S TRUST IN GOD 


God and one man constitute a majority—Anon.—God 
is multitudinous above all the nations of the earth.—Beech- 
er.—“A penny and Theresa are nothing, but a penny and 
God are everything,” was St. Theresa’s motto on founding 
a grand monastery.—Foster, 


GOD NEEDED EVERYWHERE 


The Rev. John Newton sometimes said, he had received 
more damage at his own door than in all the countries he 
had been in abroad, for he had twice fallen down the steps 
at his own door, each time spraining a knee. So much 
injury he had never received abroad. Such a fact shows 
clearly the necessity of our always living as if exposed to 
danger, and thus committing ourselves to the Divine pro- 
tection.—Arvine. 


LIFE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD 


Let us gratefully remember that God infuses into our 
perishable frame a spiritual power, which can acknowledge 
the truth of His existence, adore the redundant plenitude 
of His perfections, rely on His goodness, fear His justice, 
and aspire to His immortality. By the principle of analogy, 
as our material form shall return to its mother earth, so 
our spiritual part shall return unto its Creator. This, in- 
deed, is a proud distinction which brings into contact and 
alliance the spiritual part of man with the supreme and 
primitive greatness, God! Let then the wise man speak 


with derision of every state and condition of life, since, 
_ wherever we cast our view, we behold the funereal gloom 


of death hovering over our brightest hours. Let the wise 
man equalize the fool and the sage; let him even confound 


272 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


the lord of the earth with the beast of the field: for if we 
look at man but through the medium of a coarse corporeal 
‘eye, what do we behold in his fugitive existence but folly, 
solicitude, and disappointment? and what do we behold in ~ 
his death but an expiring vapor, or a machine whose springs 
are deranged, and which lose the power of action? Do 
ye wish to save anything from this total ruin? Cast your 
affection as an anchor on God!—Funeral Oration for Hen- 
rietta of Orleans. By Bossuet. 


' WE SHOULD WORK AS WELL AS TRUST 


A little story is told of Christmas Evans, the celebrated 
Welsh preacher, and his diligent, thrifty, common-sense 
wife. One day she reminded him that the potato patch 
needed: some attention; but he said, “O Catherine, never 
mind the potatoes; just put your trust in Providence, and 
all will be well.” 

She replied: “T’ll tell you what we'll do, Christmas; you 
go and sit down on Moelly Gest (a neighboring mountain), 
waiting for Providence, and I’ll go and hoe the potatoes, 
and we'll see to which of us Providence will first come.”— 
Rev. E. 5. Lorenz. 


DRUMMOND—THE SOUL’S FEELERS 


The protoplasm in man has a capacity for God. In this 
lies its receptivity. The chamber is ready to receive the 
new life. The Guest is expected, and, till He comes, is 
missed. Till then the soul longs and yearns, wastes and 
pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the empty air, feeling 
after God. It is now agreed that the universal language of 
the human soul has always been, “I perish with hunger.”— 
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 300. 


WE CANNOT TRUST TO CHANCE 


It has been wisely observed, that we require the same 
hand to protect us in apparent safety as in the most immi- 
‘nent danger. One of the most wicked men in the neigh- 


OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 273 


borhood of a pious minister, from whom this account was 
derived, was riding near a precipice, and fell over: his 
horse was killed, but he escaped unhurt. Instead of thank- 
ing God for his deliverance, he refused to acknowledge His 
hand in it, and attributed his escape to chance. The same 
man was afterwards riding on a very smooth road; his 
horse suddenly tripped and fell, threw his rider over his 
head, and killed him on the spot while the horse escaped 
uninjured. —Arvine, 


LONELINESS WITHOUT GOD 


This yearning for an infinite Father, this feeling of lone- 
liness in the universe*-without the idea of God, is certainly 
an important moral factor in the question of probability.— 
Curtis. 


THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD 


Naturally as the new-born draws nourishment from its 
mother’s breast, so the heart of man takes hold on God in 
surrounding nature.—Jacobi. 


FARRAGUT’S TRUST IN GOD 


The same great God who has thus far preserved me will 
still preside over my destiny. It is our place to submit pa- 
tiently to His will, and do our duty. Our lives are always 
in the hands of a Supreme Ruler. Pray to God to give you 
good understanding and keep you from evil and protect you 
from harm. . . . I shall go to church to-morrow and try to 
return suitable thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon 
me.—Farragut, in a letter to his son. 


GENERAL HAIG’ FAITH IN GOD 


An interesting incident, which illustrates the Christian 
faith of a great general, as well as the value of the army 
chaplain’s ministry in hours of actual crisis, is related by 
Major James M. Black, of Edinburgh, brother of Rev. 


274 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Hugh Black and a chaplain with the British forces. Writing _ 
toa friend, he said: “Two Sundays ago—the dark Sunday _ 
of the German push—I was at general headquarters. Sir i: 
Douglas Haig was very quiet. He came up and thanked — 
me afterwards for the comfort I had given him, and he _ 
remarked: ‘Remember, the battle is not ours, but God’s.’ 
He is a sincere Christian.”—Missionary Review of the 
World. 


BENEFITS OF (TRUSTING GOD 


GOD GIVES LIGHT AND JOY 


He who climbs above the cares of the world and turns 
his face to his God has found the sunny side of life. The 
world’s side of the hill is chill and freezing to a spiritual 
mind, but the Lord’s presence gives a warmth of joy which 
turns winter into summer.—Charles H. Spurgeon. 


TRUST IN GOD BRINGS COMFORT 


Among the countless general orders given out by com- 
manders of great armies during recent years, there is per- 
haps none more significant than this statement from General 
Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American expedi- 
tionary force: “Hardship will be your lot, but trust in God 
will give you comfort; temptation will befall you, but the 
teachings of our Savior will ge you strength. Let your 
valor as a soldier and your conduct as a man be inspiration 
to your comrades and honor to your country.”—Selected, 


REST FOUND ONLY IN GOD 
God is the only sure foundation on which the mind can 
rest—S. Irenzus Prime. 
GOD FILLS THE EMPTY HOURS 


Seek God in those hours which have appeared to you 
so empty, and they will become full to you,—for He will 
Himself sustain you in them.—Feénelon, 


LOVE FOR GOD DRIVES OUT EVIL 


Love for God is the ruling energy. This, like Aaron’s 
rod of old, swallows up all evil enchantments of the heart. 


275 


276 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


It enters the sacred temple within, and, like another Mes- 
‘siah, it expels every lurking desecration forthwith. It is a 
flame which not only lights up the dark chambers of the 
soul, but transmutes into its own pure essence all its ele- 
ments of feeling and of thought—Dr. Thomas. 


GOD’S FAVOR IS ENDURING 


A little, with the blessing of God upon it, is better than 
a great deal, with the encumbrance of His curse; His bless- 
ing can multiply a mite into a talent, but His curse will 
shrink a talent into a mite; by Him the arms of the wicked 
are broken, and by Him the righteous are upholden; so that 
the great question is, whether He be with or against us, and 
the great misfortune is, that this question is seldom asked. 
The favor of God is to them that obtain it a better and en- 
during substance, which, like the widow’s barrel of oil, 
wasted not in the evil days of famine, nor will fail—Bishop 
G. Horne. 


GOD CANNOT BE ELIMINATED 


What is the plain man to think as to God? This is a 
very important question. Years ago it was written that 
“the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” The 
query of the twentieth century is, Has not the wisdom of 
the modern world relegated to a bygone age the kind of 
God our fathers worshiped? Such a question is unsettling, 
it is bewildering. And it has its disastrous effects. Hon. 
Arthur J. Balfour, sometime premier of Great Britain and 
one of the British Empire’s leading statesmen, has ap- 
proached this question with the results of ripe scholarship 
at his command, but with the ordinary man in mind.* Those 
who read his noted work on “The Foundations of Belief,” 
that appeared a few years ago, will know something of the 
ability, the intellectual acumen, and the clarity of insight 
that he would bring to such a study. 

We hasten to give his conclusions as stated in his declared 
purpose, which was “to show that all we think best in 


*Theism and Humanism. By Arthur James Balfour. George H. 
Doran Co.: New York. Price $1.75, net. 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD Q7T 


human culture, whether associated with beauty, goodness, 
or knowledge, requires God for its support, that humanism 
without theism loses more than half its value.” In estab- 
lishing his position he reviews the results of human thought 
in esthetics, ethics, science, and philosophy. He does not 
discuss these in their methods, but takes their conclusions 
and insists that unity, some great root principle, must run 
through all, binding together the most diverse material. 
Only thus is it possible to “maintain the value of our 
highest beliefs and emotions.” “We must find for them a 
congruous origin.” He strikes a conclusive blow at mechan- 
ism and naturalism in these words: “Beauty must be more 
than an accident. The source of morality must be moral. 
The source of knowledge must be rational. If this be 
granted, you rule out mechanism, you rule out naturalism, 
you rule out agnosticism, and a lofty form of theism be- 
comes, as I think, inevitable.’”—Selected. 


EARTHLY OBJECTS DISAPPOINT 


The objects of human desire and ambition are very fair, 
and at a distance promise very well to him who can come 
up with them. But the pursuit of them (and the whole 
natural life of man is one long pursuit) is like the country- 
man’s chase after the rainbow. He thought that one limb 
of the bright arch rested in the field close to him, but when 
he had cleared the hedge, and come up to the spot.on which 
it seemed to rest, the rainbow had adjourned into another 
field. Even so these various earthly objects of desire or 
ambition, one after another disappoint those who attain 
them; their prismatic colors all vanish when we come up 
close to them, they are found to have their anxieties and 
their troubles (not the least of which is the precarious 
tenure of them), and some new rainbow is seen ahead, two 
or three fields off, to lure us into a pursuit which turns out 
to be as fruitless as the former. Must it ever be so? Is 
there no really satisfactory object in which the soul of man 
may find a full and perfect contentment? Assuredly there is. 
Our Creator does not mock and baffle us by implanting 


278 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


strong instincts in our nature, and great yearnings after 
happiness, which have nothing corresponding to them. In 
the knowledge of God, in the appreciation of God, in the 
enjoyment of God, in communion with God, but in nothing 
short of this, man can find rest —Goulburn, 


WHY EARTHLY THINGS CANNOT SATISFY 


And now is the question asked, Why is this world un- 
satisfying? Brethren, it is the grandeur of the soul which 
God has given us, which makes it insatiable in its desires— 
with an infinite void which cannot be filled up. A soul 
which was made for God, how can the world fill it? If 
the ocean can be still with miles of unstable waters beneath 
it, then, the soul of man, rocking itself upon its own deep 
longings, with the Infinite beneath it, may rest. We were 
created once in majesty,,to find enjoyment in God, and if 
our hearts are empty now, there is nothing for it but to 
fill up the hollowness of the soul with God. 

Let not that expression—filling the soul with God—pass 
away without a distinct meaning. God is love and goodness. 
Fill the soul with goodness, and fill the soul with love, that 
is the filling it with God. If we love one another, God 
dwelleth in us. There is nothing else that can satisfy— 
F. W. Robertson, 1816-1853. 


THE SOUL’S INSTINCT FOR GOD 


As when I hunger, my hunger says that there is food; 
as when my eye was made, that eye said that there was 
light to match it and to meet it; so in the higher realms of 
experience, I do know that certain struggles and yearnings, 
certain mute wants, certain indefinite and indescribable 
experiences, all point to something higher than I am. 

What is it that the vine seeks, day by day, struggling 
through the leaves, and twining itself upon whatever comes 
in its way? Is it support? It would be just as well sup- 
ported if it lay on the ground. Why does the vine go still 
twining up? It is because it is in love with the light. Why 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 279, 


is it that men’s souls twine, and rise, and aspire? Is it 
instinct? What is instinct but this: that there is something 
in the nature of the soul which reaches out after a stimulus 
which it feels, as the plant grows toward the light which 
looks upon it and stimulates it? As everything in the vege- 
table kingdom reaches toward the sun, so the soul reaches 
toward God. He yearns for us, and we reach out toward 
Fim.—Beecher, 


GOD OFTEN A LAST RESOURCE 


How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest 
resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else 
to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have 
driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven. 
—Geo. MacDonald. 


A LITTLE WITH GOD CAN SATISFY 


A little, with the blessing of God upon it, is better than 
a great deal, with the encumbrance of His curse; His 
blessing can multiply a mite into a talent, but His curse will 
shrink a talent into a mite; by Him the arms of the wicked 
are broken, and by Him the righteous are upholden: so 
that the great question is, whether He be with or against 
us, and the great misfortune is, that this question is seldom 
asked. The favor of God is to them that obtain it a better 
and enduring substance, which, like the widow’s barrel of 
oil, wasted not in the evil days of famine, nor will fail— 
Bp. Horne. 


GOD MORE THAN GOLD 


It was the saying of a wise Roman, “I had rather have 
the esteem of the Emperor Augustus than his gifts:” for 
he was an understanding prince, and his favor very honor- 
able. When Cyrus gave one of his friends a kiss, and 
another a wedge of gold, he that had the gold envied him 
that had the kiss as a greater expression of his favor. So 
the true Christian prefers the privilege of acceptance with 


280 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


God to the possession of any earthly comfort, for in the 
light of his countenance is life, and his favor is as the cloud 
of the latter rain —Buck. 


GOD THE BEST COMPANION 


Resemblance to God results from our intimacy with 
him. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” But 
while a “companion of fools shall be destroyed, he that 
walketh with wise men shall be wise.” We soon assume 
the manners of those with whom we are familiar, especial- 
ly if the individual be a distinguished personage, and we 
preéminently revere and love him. Upon this principle, the 
more we have to do with God the more we shall grow into 
His likeness and “be followers of Him as dear children.” 
—Jay. : 

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD 


Never shall we be lonely, never have to complain of 
want of companionship, if we acquire this blessed habit of 
talking with God. There was an old Scotchman sitting 
by his humble fire, and a visitor asked him if he was not 
lonesome sitting there all day, and he said, “Nae, nae, I 
just sit here clacking wi’ Jesus.” When we say that “clack- 


ing” is with the Scotch the word for friendly talking, our ¢ 


readers will not suppose there was irreverence in the old 
man’s words; perhaps they may see something to be envied 
as well as admired—Power. 


THE SOUL CAN REST ONLY IN GOD 


As bees can never stay upon any corrupt thing, but only 
stop among the flowers, so no creature can ever satisfy your 
heart, for it can never rest but in God alone; God not being 
willing that our hearts should find any resting-place, no 
more than the dove which went out of Noah’s ark, to the 


end it may return to Himself from whom it proceeded 


De Sales. . 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 281 


’ CASTING OUR CARES ON GOD 


If a king should promise one a living whilst he lived, it 
would lessen his carefulness for earthly things. How much 
more should God’s promise make us careless for worldly 
things, seeing He is the King of all kings!—Cawdray. 


GOD'S FAVOR MORE THAN THIS WORLD 


All the world without God’s favor cannot make a man 
happy. What will it profit us if the whole world smile upon 
us, and God frown and be angry with us? All the candles 
in the world cannot make it day, nay all the stars shining 
together cannot dispel the darkness of night nor make it 
day, unless the sun shines; so whatever comforts we have 
of a higher or lower nature, they cannot make it day with 
a gracious heart, unless God’s face shine upon us, for He 
can blast all in an instant. A prisoner is never the more 
secure, though his fellows and companions applaud, and tell 
him his cause is good, and that he shall escape, when he 
that is judge condemns him, Though we have the good 
word of all the world, yet if the Lord speak not peace to our 
souls, and shine not upon our consciences, what will the 
good word of the world do?—Manton, 1620-1667. 


WITHOUT GOD ALL IS CHAOS 


The being of a God is the guard of the world; the sense 
of a God is the foundation of civil order; without this there 
is no tie upon the consciences of men. What force would 
there be in oaths for the decision of controversies, what 
right could there be in appeals made to one that had no 
being? A city of atheists would be a heap of confusion; 
there could be no ground of any commerce, when all the 
sacred bonds of it in the consciences of men were snapt 
asunder, which are torn to pieces and utterly destroyed by 
denying the existence of God. What magistrate could be 
secure in his standing? What private person could be se- 
cure-in his right? Can that, then, be a truth that is destruc- 
tive of all public good ?—Charnock. 


282 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD ALONE CAN SATISFY 


A man that is hungry finds his stomach still craving. 
Something he wants, without which he cannot be well. Give 
him music, company, pictures, houses, honors, yet there fol- 
lows no satisfaction (these are not suitable to his appetite), 
still his stomach craves; but set before this man some 
wholesome food, and let him eat, and his craving is over. 
So it is with man’s soul as with his body; the soul is full of 
cravings and longings, spending itself in sallies out after its 
proper food. Give it the credit, and profits, and pleasures 
of the world, and they cannot abate its desire; it craves still 
(for these do not answer the soul's nature, and therefore 
cannot answer its necessity) ; but once set God before it, 
and it feeding on Him, it is satisfied; its very inordinate, 
dogged appetite after the world is now cured. He, tasting 
His manna, tramples on the onions of Egypt: “He that 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drink- 
eth of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst.” 
—Swinnock, 1773. 


ASSURANCE IN TRUSTING GOD 


In his autobiography, Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a 


day in his childhood when he accidentally locked himself in a 


a dark room. He could not turn the key to release him- 
self, and he was in terror by reason of imagined enemies, 
until his father came to the door and called to him. Then 
he became quiet. In a little while the music of his father’s 
voice made him forget his surroundings and his terrors. 
And he actually enjoyed the remaining time of his impris- 
onment before the coming of the locksmith. So we may 
bear terrors, difficulties, dangers—every untoward thing— 
as we remember that God is with us, Who speaks reassur- 
ingly —Rev. F. S. Corbett. 


GOD SUPPLIES EVERY NEED 


He that hath God for his portion shall have all other 
things cast into his store, as paper and packthread are cast — 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 283 


into the bargain, or as a handful of corn is cast into the 
corn you try, or as hucksters cast in an over-cast among the 
fruit you try, or as an inch of measure is given unto an ell 
of cloth. Matt. 6:25, 31-33. O sirs, how can that man be 
poor, how can that man want, that hath the Lord of heaven 
and earth for his portion? Surely he cannot want light 
that enjoys the sun, nor he cannot want bread that hath all 
sorts of grain in his barns, nor he cannot want water that 
hath the fountain at his door; no more can he want any- 
thing that hath God for his portion, who is everything, and 
who will be everything to every gracious soul. O sirs! the 
thought, the tongue, the desire, the wish, the conception, all 
fall short of God, and of that great goodness that He hath 
laid up for them that fear Him, and why then should they 
be afraid of wants ?—Brooks. 


TRUE HAPPINESS FOUND IN GOD 


While earthly objects are exhausted by familiarity, the 
thought of God becomes to the devout man continually 
brighter, richer, vaster; derives fresh luster from all that he 
observes of nature and Providence, and attracts to itself 
all the glories of the universe. The devout man, especially 
in moments of strong religious sensibility, feels distinctly 
that he has found the true happiness of man. He has 
found a being for his veneration and love, whose character 
is inexhaustible, who, after ages shall have passed, will stall 
be uncomprehended in the extent of His perfections, and 
will still communicate to the pure mind stronger proofs of 
His excellence, and more intimate signs of His approval._— 
Channing. 


fn GOD BRINGS SPRING-TIME TO THE SOUL 


It is with God and the soul as between the sun and the 
earth. In the decline of the year, when the sun seems to 
draw afar off from us, how doth the earth mourn and 
droop; how do the trees cast off the ornament of their 
leaves and fruits; how doth the sap of all plants run down 
to the roots, leaving the bare boughs seemingly sere and 
dead! But, at the manifestation of it in the rising of the 


f 


984 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


spring, all things seem revived; the earth decks herself in 
the fresh habiliments of blossoms, leaves, and flowers, to en- 


tertain those comfortable heats and influences. So, and no q 


more, in the declining and approach of this all-glorious Sun 
of Righteousness; in His presence there 4s life and blessed- 
ness, in His absence nothing but grief, disconsolateness, and 4 
despair. If an earthly being do but withdraw himself from — 
us for a time, we are troubled; how much more if the King 
of glory shall absent Himself from us in displeasure !— 
malters) 
ALL ORDER COMES FROM GOD 


The accusations of conscience evidence the omniscience | 
and the holiness of God; the terrors of conscience, the jus- 
tice of God; the approbations of conscience, the goodness 
of God. All the order in the world owes itself, next to the 
providence of God, to conscience; without it the world 
would be a Golgotha. As the creatures witness there was 
a first cause that produced them, so this principle in man 
evidenceth itself to be set by the same hand for the good of 
that which it had so framed. There could be no conscience 
:¢ there was no God, and man could not be a rational crea- By 
ture if there were no conscience.—Charnock. fs 


EARTHLY PLEASURES LIKE MOONLIGHT 


As he that walketh in the sun careth not whether the 3 
moon shine or no, because he hath no need of her light: @ 
even so, when a man hath found the heavenly riches, he 
careth not for earthly riches——Cawdray, 1609. 


ALL THINGS LITTLE COMPARED TO ETERNITY 


Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you 4 


little in comparison with eternal realities—R. M. Mc- 7 
Cheyne. : 
GOD NECESSARY TO MAN) 


If God were not a necessary being of Himself, He might 4 
almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.— ¢ 
- Tillotson. 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 285 


GOD MAKES SOME MEN GREAT 


Some must be great. Great offices will have 
Great talents. And God gives to every man 
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, 


_ That lifts him into‘ life, and lets him fall 


Just in the niche he was ordained to fill. 
, Siu —Cowper. 
GOD MAKES GREAT LEADERS 


The fire of God 
Fills him. I never saw the like; there live 

No greater leader. f 
. —Tennyson. 
PRAISE Gop! 


Praise God, from whomeall blessings flow! 
Praise Him, all. creatures here below! 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 
_ —Thomas Ken. 


ACQUAINT THYSELF WITH GOD 
By Mrs. F. A. Breck 


Job 22 :21-28 

Acquaint thyself with God, O Soul, 
And good shall come to thee; 

His words.shall be as Ophir gold,— 
He thy defense shall be. 

Thou shalt delight thyself in Him, 
And offer prayer and praise; 

He will establish thy decree, 
Send light upon thy ways. 

O friend, acquaint thyself with God, 
Let Him his peace impart, © 

And His abounding mystery-joy 
Find run-ways in thy heart! 


286 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD ALONE CAN GIVE STRONG MEN 


God, give us men. The time demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands. 
—J. G. Holland. 


GOD A BULWARK AND FORTRESS 


A mighty fortress is our God, 
A bulwark never failing; - 
Our helper He amid the flood 
Of mortal ills prevailing. 
—Luther. 


TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD 


Out of the knottiest timber God can make the vessels of 
mercy for service in the high palace of glory —Rutherford. 


GODLINESS PRODUCES CLEANLINESS 


Cleanliness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a 
due reverence to God.—Bacon. 


A CURE FOR DISCOURAGEMENT 


It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers 
that his helper is omnipotent.—Jeremy Taylor. 


GOD AN EVER PRESENT FRIEND # 


In the changes of things you will find a past and a fu- 
ture; in God you will find a present where past and future 
cannot be.—St. Augustine. 


GOD ALWAYS WITH US 


On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins — 
with the words, “He remains.’ This applies to God, and ~ 
gives sweet comfort to the bereaved. Friends may die, for- 
tune fly away, but God endures—He remains.—Perrine. 


BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 287 


GOD OUR LIGHT AND LIFE 


God with us, and all things in God, is light in darkness, 
life in death.—Cecil, 


GOD GAVE HAYDN OVERWHELMING JOY 


When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn 
how it happened that his church music was always so cheer- 
ful, the great composer made a most beautiful TEP yoy ok 
cannot,” said he, “make it otherwise; I write according to 
the thoughts I feel. Whert I think upon God my heart is 
so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from 
my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will 
be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.” — 
Baxendale. 


WHAT GOD IS TO US 


What wings are to the bird, oil to the wheels, weights to 
the clock, and the loadstone to the needle, that are the dis- 
coveries and smiles of God to the soul at its conversion.— 


Brooks. 
GOD EVERYTHING TO HIS CHILDREN 


It is no wonder that, when God would reveal Himself, He 
_ Soes out of our common speaking one to another, and ex- 
_presseth Himself in a way peculiar to Himself, and such as 
is suitable and proper to His own nature and glory. Hence 
as when He speaks of Himself, and His own eternal es- 
sence, He saith—“I am that I am;” so when He speaks of 
Himself, with reference to His creatures, and especially to 
Fis people, He saith—“I Am.” He doth not say—“I am 
their friend, their father, or their protector.” He doth not 
_say—"T am their light, their life, their guide, their strength, 
or tower ;” but only “I Am.” He sets, as it were, His hand 
to a blank, that His people may write under it what they 
please, that is good for them. As if He should say—‘‘Are 
_ they weak? I am strength. Are they poor? I am riches. 
_ Are they in trouble? I am comfort. Are they sick? I am 


288 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


health. Are they dying? Iam life. Have they nothing? I q 
am all things. I am wisdom and power, I am justice and 
mercy, I am grace and goodness, I am glory, beauty, holi- — 


ness, eminency, super-eminency, perfection, all-sufficiency, — 


eternity, Jehovah. Whatsoever is suitable to their nature, — 
or convenient for them in their several conditions, that Iam. © 
Whatsoever is amiable in itself, or desirable unto them, that 
Iam. Whatsoever is pure and holy, whatsoever is great or — 
pleasant, whatsoever is good or needful to make men happy, ~ 
that Iam.” So that, in short, God here represents Himself _ 
unto us as an universal good, and leaves us to make the ap- — 
plication of it to ourselves, according to our several wants, q 
capacities, and desires, by saying only in general—“I Am.” — 
—Bp. Beveridge. q 


SEEKING AFTER GOD 


FOUND GOD AFTER DESPAIRING 


“T have heard,” says Mr. Daniel Wilson, in a sermon of 
his, “of a certain person, whose name I could mention, who 
was tempted to conclude his day over, and himself lost; 
that, therefore, it was his best course to put an end to his 
life, which, if continued, would but serve to increase his sin, 
and consequently his misery, from which there was no es- 
cape; and seeing he must be in hell, the sooner he was there 
the sooner he should know the worst; which was preferable 
to his being worn away with the tormenting expectation of 
what was to come. Under the influence of such suggestions 
as these, he went to a river, with a design to throw himself 
in; but as he was about to do it, he seemed to hear a voice 
saying to him, Who can tell? as if the words had been audi- 
bly delivered. By this, therefore, he was brought to a 
stand; his thoughts were arrested, and thus began to work 
on the passage mentioned: Who can tell (Jonah iii:9) 
viz., what God can do when he will proclaim his grace glo- 
_ tious? Who can tell but such an one as I may find mercy? 
_ or what will be the issue of humble prayer to heaven for it? 
_ Who can tell what purposes God will serve in my recovery? 


a By such thoughts as these, being so far influenced as to 


_ resolve to try, it pleased God graciously to enable him, 

through all his doubts and fears, to throw himself by faith 
on Jesus Christ, as able to save to the uttermost all that 
come to God by Him, humbly desiring and expecting mercy 
for his sake, to his own soul. In this he was not disap- 


pointed; but afterwards became an eminent Christian and 


minister; and from his own experience of the riches of 
_ Stace, was greatly useful to the conversion and comfort of 
others.—Arvine. 

289 


290 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


AS THE HART PANTETH AFTER THE WATER-BROOKS 


Once a king, in crossing the desert in a lone caravan, was — 
parched with thirst. Dreadful is that dry and thirsty land 
where no water is! The sands were strewn with the wrecks — 
of caravans, the skeletons of men who had died of thirst © 
lying in that dread cemetery, and then the cry arose, “Wa- 
ter, water! there is no water!” It was a fearful moment. 
Parched throats, and eyes hopelessly looked up to the all- 
too-cloudless sky along the plain; overhead, the red-hot cop- _ 
per sun. Then said one, “We must let loose the harts— — 
the light, fleet harts.” They bounded in all directions. — 
Keen in their instinctive scent of water, the spring was 
found; and then, when they sat to rest beside the beautiful — 
and blessed pool,—then said the king, as he took forth his _ 


tablets and wrote, “As the hart panteth after the water- — 


brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.’—E, P. 
Hood. % 


LONGING FOR GOD 


When my blood flows like wine, when all is ease and pros- 
perity, when the sky is blue, and birds sing, and flowers — 
blossom, and my life is an anthem moving in time and tune, 
then this world’s joy and affection suffice. But when a _ 
change comes, when I am weary and disappointed, when — 
the skies lower into the somber night, when there is no song 
of bird, and the perfume of flowers is but their dying ~ 
breath, when all is sunsetting and autumn, then I yearn for 
Him who sits with the summer of love in his soul, and feel + 


that all earthly affection is but a glowworm-light, compared . 


to that which blazes with such effulgence in the heart of q 
God.— Beecher. 5 


GOD’S VOICE TO MANKIND 


Gods fade, but God abides and in man’s heart 
Speaks with the clear unconquerable cry 
Of energies and hopes that cannot die. 

_ —John Addington Symonds. 


HOW GOD IS REVEALED TO US 


GOD EVERYWHERE REVEALED 


O Lord, Thou showest thyself everywhere, and every- 
where inattentive men neglect to perceive Thy presence. 
All Nature speaks of Thee, and resounds with Thy holy 
name; but she speaks to men that are deaf, and who owe 
their deafness to the noise and distraction that they raise 
about themselves. Thou art near, Thou art even within 
them; but they wander out of themselves, and are fugitives 
from their own breasts.—Fénelon, 1651-1715. 


GOD REVEALED ONLY TO THE PURE IN HEART 


The Divine nature can only be made known to us through 
that part of our nature which is like His. You cannot imi- 
tate silence by making a noise. You cannot make a man 
have sweet tastes by giving him sour or bitter. You cannot 
take an opaque stone, and with it illustrate the transparency 
of glass or a diamond. You cannot by darkness imitate 
light. You must have the quality itself that you wish to 
make known. If that which in God is so precious were a 
material thing, then it might be made known to us through 
material organizations; but as God is infinite in love, and 
beauty, and wisdom, and glory, and excellence, He is to be 
known to us in these elements by the actual possession of 
the qualities themselves, as windows through which the light 
of heaven shines. The windows in us are to be like the 
heavenly windows; and the knowledges that come to us are 
to be brought out from the very chords which are in our 
bosom, and which vibrate in us.—Beecher. 


291 


LOVE FOR GOD 


GOD SHOULD BE FIRST IN OUR HEARTS 


We should give God the same place in our hearts that he 
holds in the universe. 

If we have God in all things while they are ours, we shall 
have all things in God when they are taken away.—Selected. 


WESLEY'S LOVE FOR GOD 


The aged John Wesley, a short time before his death, at- — 
tempted to speak, but could not make his friends under- — 
stand. Finally, gathering all his remaining strength, he ex- 
claimed, “The best of au is, God ts with us!’—Rev. E. S. 
Lorenz. 


GOD’S LOVE BEGETS OURS 


Some years ago two gentlemen were riding together, and, 
as they were about to separate, one addressed the other 
thus: “Do you ever read your Bible?’ “Yes, but I get no ~ 
benefit from it, because, to tell the truth, I feel I do not 
love God.” “Neither did I,” replied the other, “but God 
loved me.” This answer produced such an effect upon his _ 
friend, that, to use his own words, it was as if one had lifted 
him off the saddle into the skies. It opened up to his soul at 
once the great truth, that it is not how much I love God, but p 
how much God loves me.—Bertram. a 


A NEGRO PREACHER’S LOVE FOR GOD 


The freedmen exhibited great anxiety to learn to read. 
One of them, an old preacher, spelled out the word Gop, _ 
and was told that it was the name of the One he sometimes 
preached about. He held up his hands in surprise, exclaim- 

292 


LOVE FOR GOD 293 


ing, “Is this the name of God, and that the way it looks 
when printed?” Then, brushing away his tears, he gazed 
upon the blessed name, saying, “Oh, blessed day! God has 
permitted these old eyes to see to read his name.”—Foster. 


GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL 


The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but 
for the wide world’s joy. The lonely pine on the moun- 
tain-top waves its somber boughs and cries, ‘““Thou art my 
sun.” And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, 
and whispers with its perfumed breath, “Thou art my sun.” 
And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind and 
makes answer, “Thou art my sun.” So God sits, effulgent 
in heaven, not for a favored few, but for the universe of 
life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may 
not look up with childlike confidence and say, “My Father, 
Thou art mine.’’—Beecher. 


SERVING GOD 


DOING EVERYTHING TO GOD’S GLORY 


God should be the object of all our desires, the end of © 
all our actions, the principle of all our affections, and the — 
governing power of our whole souls—Massillon. 4 


WE WERE CREATED FOR GOD’S SERVICE 


When the son of Fluvius was found in the conspiracy of | 7 


Catiline, the displeased father reprehended him sharply, say- 
ing, Non ego te Catilini genut, sed patrie—‘I did not beget _ 
you for Catiline, but for your country.” This is the lan- — 
guage of God to his children: I gave you not bodies and 


souls to serve sin with, but to serve me with. Our bodies | 


were not formed to be instruments of unrighteous action, — 


nor our souls the gloomy abodes of foul spirits —Secker. 


ONLY THOSE LIVE WHO LIVE FOR GOD 


We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 

In feelings, not in figures on a dial. - 

We should count time by heart-throbs. 

He most lives 

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 

Life’s but a means unto an end; that end 

Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God. 
—Philip James Bailey. 


USE YOUR STRENGTH FOR GOD 


Be sure that God : - | 
Ne’er dooms to waste the strength He deigns impart. __ 
—Robert Browning. 


294 a 


SERVING GOD 295 


WORK AS WELL AS PRAY 


Help thyself, and God will help thee-——Izaak Walton. 
God helps them that help themselves.—Franklin. 


God helps those who help themselves.—Algernon Sidney. 


LIVING FOR GOD 


Let each man think himself an act of God, 

His mind a thought, his life a breath of God; 

And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds, 

To show the most of heaven he hath in him. 
—Philip James Bailey. 


THE BEST MOTTO 


There is no better motto which it (culture) can have than 
these words of Bishop Wilson, “To make reason and the 
will of God prevail.”—Matthew Arnold. 


GOD OUR MOTIVE AND OUR END 


From Thee, great God, we spring, to Thee we tend.— 
Path, motive, guide, original and end. 
—Johnson. 


WALKING WITH GOD 
I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone 
in the light—Mary Gardiner Brainard. 
WE MUST BE TRUE TO GOD TO BE TRUE TO MAN 


He’s true to God who’s true to man.—Lowell. 


GIVE GOD EACH MOMENT 


And give to God each moment as it flies —Doddridge. 


296 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


TRUST GOD AND KEEP POWDER DRY 


Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder 
dry.—Colonel Blocker. 


WE OWE ALL TO GOD 


If all that I am and have be from Him, I cannot surely 
owe Him less than all—J. Howe. 


LEARNING OUR DUTY 


I must see the face of God before I can undertake any 
duty.— _M’Cheyne. 


READING GOD'S WORD WITH PRAYER 


Whoever wishes to be with God ought always to pray, 
and often to read; for when we pray we speak to God, and 
when we read He speaks to us.—St. Augustine. 


LIVING NEAR TO GOD 


Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you 
little in comparison with eternal realities. Be as much as 
you can with God.—M’Cheyne. 


SERVE GOD CONTINUALLY 


God is Alpha and Omega in the great world: endeavor to 
make Him so in the little world: make Him thy evening 
epilogue and thy morning prologue; practice to make Him 
thy last thought at night when thou sleepest, and thy first 
thought in the morning when thou awakest; so shall thy 
‘fancy be sanctified in the night, and thy understanding recti- 
fied in the day; so shall thy rest be peaceful, thy labors 
prosperous, thy life pious, and thy death glorious.—J. 
Quarles. 


FEAR OF GOD 


FEAR WHICH IS NOT REVERENCE 


The pagan nations have ever stood in awe of deities, 
whose wrath they have deprecated, but whose love they 
have never dared to hope for. In the East-India Museum 
in London, there is an elaborately carved ivory idol, from 
India, with twelve hands, and in every hand a different in- 
strument of cruelty. Papists put God far away, and trust 
to the intervention of priests, of saints, and of the virgin. 
Prayers for a man must still go on after his death, and 
money be paid to buy God off from his vengeance. On the 
door of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, in Fribourg, Switzer- 
land, I saw a notice requesting the prayers of the charitable 
for a youth who had died a few days before, “fortified by 
the sacraments of the church;” and, inside, a painting of 
sundry persons in the flames of purgatory, with a contribu- 
tion-box underneath, and this inscription, “Oh! rescue us; 
you, at least, who are our friends.’—C. D. Foss. 


TRUE FEAR BEGETS LOVE 


In all thine actions think that God sees thee, and in all 
his actions labor to see Him.—That will make thee fear 
Him, and this will move thee to love Him.—The fear of God 
is the beginning of knowledge, and the knowledge of God 
is the perfection of love——Quarles. 


WHY WE SHOULD FEAR GOD 


Each of the attributes of God are proper to raise a suit- 
able fear in every considerate mind: His majesty a fear, 
lest we affront it by being irreverent; His holiness a fear, 
lest we offend it by being carnal; His justice a fear, lest we 


297 


298 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


provoke it by being presumptuous; and His goodness a fear, 
lést we lose it by being unthankful—bDr. J. Young. 


FEAR OF GOD REMOVES ALL OTHER FEAR 
Submitting with respect to His holy will, I fear God, and 
have no other fear.—Racine. | 
CAST YOURSELF ON GOD'S MERCY 


If you fear God, cast yourself into His arms, and then 
His hands cannot strike you.—St. Augustine. | 


NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 


THE WORLD TRIES TO FORGET GOD 


Apart from clear acts of great and grievous sin, how is 
God forgotten, clean forgotten, by the greatest part of man- © 
kind. They live as if there were no God. It is not as if 
they openly rebelled against Him. They pass Him over and 
ignore Him. He is an inconvenience in His own world, an 
impertinence in His own creation. So He has been quietly 
set on one side, as if He were an idol out of fashion, and 
in the way. Men of science, and politicians, have agreed 
on this, and men of business and wealth think it altogether 
the most decent thing to be silent about God; for it is dif- 
ficult to speak of Him, or have a view of Him, without al- 
lowing too much to Him.—F. W. Faber. 


MAN’S INGRATITUDE TO GOD 


Manlius successfully defended the Capitol of Rome 
against assault and thereby won the gratitude of the citi- 
zens. Afterward he was condemned to death for some 
misdemeanor. The people remembered the favor which he 
had done them in saving their Capitol, and would not allow 
him to be slain anywhere in sight of it. They found a place 
in a grove by the river side, where no spire of the Capitol 
reminded them of their ingratitude, and there they executed 
him. Men who can find no place where God’s mercy 
reaches not do not scruple to crucify his Son afresh.— 
Foster. 

ALL CLASSES NEGLECTING GOD 


The high and the low, the young and the old, the busy and 
the idle, alike shun acquaintance with God, as if His very 
name brought uneasiness, and disturbed our comfort and 


299 


800 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD _ 


repose. If we mention God to the young, we too often seem 
to be troubling them with what they had rather forget in 
such early days; while the aged dislike to be reminded of 
their misfortune, that their time on earth is drawing near 
to an end. If we mention God to the gay and happy, we 
appear to be interfering with their pleasures. If we men- 
tion Him to the great and to the learned, they will intimate 
that such subjects belong rather to a humbler class and 
station. But the poor and laborious, on their part, refer us 
to those who have more information and more leisure. 
Thus, a large portion of mankind, in all classes, strive to 
keep God out of their thoughts, and to live, so far as in them 
lies, without Him in the world. Yes, without Him, who, as 
the Apostle says, “is not far from any one of us; for in him 
we live, and move, and have our being.” Why should they 
act so strangely and unreasonably, if they believed that ac- 
quaintance with God would give them peace.—Bishop Sum- 
ner. 


BONAVENTURA’S TEMPTATION 


The devil told Bonaventura that he was a reprobate and 
should, therefore, seek to enjoy the pleasures of this world. 
The saint answered, ‘‘No, not so, Satan; if I must not enjoy 
mi after this life, let me enjoy Him as much as I can in 

—Foster. 


DISREGARDING GOD 


Is God a being less to be regarded than man, and more 
worthy of contempt than a creature? It would be strange 
if a benefactor should live in the same town, in the same 
house, with us, and we never exchange a word with him; 
yet this is our case, who have the works of God in our 
eyes, the goodness of God in our being, the mercy of God 
in our daily food, yet think so little of Him, converse so lit- 
tle with Him, serve everything before Him, and prefer 
everything above Him. Whence have we our mercies but 
from His hand? Who, beside Him, maintains our breath 
at this moment? Would He call for our spirits this mo- 
ment, they must depart from us to attend to His command. 


So Se aa es ee 


eae = i 


NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 301 


There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is 
not aggravated, because there is not a moment wherein He 
is not our guardian and gives us not tastes of a fresh 
- bounty.—Charnock. 


MAN’S WILFULNESS TOWARD GOD 


It is observable how God’s goodness strives with man’s 
refractoriness. Man would sit down at this world, God 
bids him sell it and purchase a better; just as a father, who 
hath in his hand an apple and a piece of gold under it: the 
child comes, and with pulling gets the apple out of his 
father’s hand; his father bids him throw it away, and he 
will give him the gold for it, which the child utterly refus- 
ing, eats it and is troubled with worms; so is the carnal and 
wilful man with the worm of the grave in this world and 
the worm of conscience in the next.—Herbert. 


NO ONE WISE WHO NEGLECTS GOD 


With God there is no free man but his servant, though in 
the galleys; no slave but the sinner, though in a palace; none 
noble but the virtuous, if never so basely descended; none 
rich but he that possesseth God, even in rags; none wise but 
he that is a fool to himself and the world; none happy but 
he whom the world pities. Let me be free, noble, rich, wise, 
happy, to God.—Bp. Hall. 


DESIRE TO BE RID OF GOD 


Many men believe in the existence of a God; but they 
do not love that belief. They know there is a God; but they 
greatly wish there were none. Some would be very pleased, 
yea, would set the bells a-ringing, if you believed there were 
no God. Why, if there were no God, then you might live 
just as you liked; if there were no God, then you might run 
riot, and have no fear of future consequences. It would be 
to you the greatest joy that could be if you heard that the 
eternal God had ceased to be. But the Christian never 


302 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


wishes any such a thing as that. The thought that there is 
a God is the sunshine of his existence.—Spurgeon. 


FEARING THOSE WHO FEAR NOT GOD 


I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears 
Him not.—Saadi. 


FUTILITY OF RESISTING GOD 


As God is incapable of changing His resolves, because of 
His infinite wisdom, so He is incapable of being forced to 
any change, because of His infinite power. Being almighty, 
He can be no more changed from power to weakness than, 
being all-wise, He can be changed from wisdom to folly, or, 
being omniscient, from knowledge to ignorance. He can- 
not be altered in His purposes, because of His wisdom; nor 
in the manner and method of His actions, because of His in- 
finite strength. Men, indeed, when their designs are laid 
deepest and their purposes stand firmest, yet are forced to 
stand still, or change the manner of the execution of their 
resolves, by reason of some outward accidents that obstruct 
them in their course: for, having not wisdom to foresee fu- 
ture hindrances, they have not power to prevent them, or 
strength to remove them, when they unexpectedly interpose 
themselves between their desire and performance; but no 
created power has strength enough to be a bar against God, 
By the same act of His will that He resolves a thing, He 
can puff away any impediments that seem to rise up against 
Him, He that wants no means to effect his purposes can- 
not be checked by anything that riseth up to stand in his 
way; heaven, earth, sea, the deepest places are too weak to 
resist His will.—Charnock. 


THREATENING GOD 


Rev. G. S. Owen, missionary in China, says: “The wife 
of a man living at Chuen-sha, a city near Shanghai, had a 
severe attack of madness. At night she became especially 


NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 303 


wild, foaming and raging terribly. The husband went at 
once to the temple of the city god, presented various sacri- 
fices and made vows; but his wife remained mad as ever. 
He went again and again; but to no purpose, the woman 
grew worse. The man got furious; he had half beggared 
himself by making offerings to the city god, yet his wife was 
no better. He would have his revenge. Away he went to 
the temple, and thus addressed the city god—‘You call your- 
self the city god, while in reality you are an evil, money- 
loving, unjust demon. It was my ancestors who built you 
this fine temple, and I have been most regular and devout in 
my worship; in return you have made my wife mad, and 
refuse to cure her. Well, now mark what I say: if she is 
not better within three days, I will pull you down from that 
pedestal, and throw you into the first ditch I can find, and 
there you shall rot.’ The woman got better within the pre- 
scribed time, and thus the god escaped the threatened pun- 
ishment.” Others than heathen first attempt to bribe and 
then to terrify their God into compliance with their schemes. 


PRESUMING AGAINST GOD 


Be not curious to search into the secrets of God; pick not 
the lock where He hath allowed no key. He that will be 
sifting every cloud may be smitten with a thunderbolt: and 
he that will be too familiar with God’s secrets may be over- 

whelmed in His judgments. Adam would curiously in- 


crease his knowledge; therefore Adam shamefully lost his 


goodness : the Bethshemites would needs pry into the ark of 

God; therefore the hand of God slew about fifty thousand 

of them. Therefore hover not about this flame, lest we 

scorch our wings. For my part, seeing God hath made me 

His secretary, I will carefully improve myself by what He 

__ has revealed, and not curiously inquire into or after what 
_ He hath reserved.Adams. | 


GOD IRRESISTIBLE 


_As-you stood some stormy day upon a sea-cliff, and 
marked the giant billow rise from the deep to rush on with 


304 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trem- 
- bling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its 
course, and hurl it back to the depths of ocean? Did you 
ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the 
lightning’s leap, as it shot and flashed, dazzling athwart the 
gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt, and change 
its path? Still more foolish and vain his thought, who 
fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God, 
saying, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him ? 
Let us break his bands asunder, and cast away his cords 
from us.” Break his bands asunder! How He that sitteth 
in the heavens shall laugh!—Dr. Guthrie. 


TRYING TO DENY GOD 


I question whether there ever was, or can be in the world, 
an uninterrupted and internal denial of the being of God, or 
that men (unless we can suppose conscience utterly dead) 
can arrive to such a degree of impiety; for before they can 
stifle such sentiments in them (whatsoever they may as- 
sert) they must be utter strangers to the common concep- 
tions of reason, and despoil themselves of their own hu- 
manity. He that dares to deny a God with his lips yet sets 
up something or other as a God in his heart. Is it not la- 
mentable that this sacred truth, consented to by all nations, 
which is the band of civil societies, the source of all order 
in the world, should be denied with a bare face, and dis- 
puted against, in companies, and the glory of a wise Creator 
ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind chance? Are 
not such worse than heathens ?>—Charnock. 


SLIGHTING GOD 


The Arabians offered sacrifices and other offerings to © 
idols as well as to God, who was also often put off with the — 
least portion, as Mohammed upbraids them. Thus when — 
they planted fruit trees, or sowed a field, they divided it by — 
a line into two parts, setting one apart for their idols and © 
the other for God; if any of the fruits happened to fall from ~ 


Fe OD pee eng ge ee Ee gE Ie ea 


NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 305 


the idol’s into God’s, they made restitution; but if from 
God’s part into the idol’s, they made no restitution. So 
when they watered the idol’s grounds, if the water broke 
over the channels made for that purpose, and run on God’s 
part, they dammed it up again; but if the contrary, they let 
it run: on, saying, they wanted what was God’s, but he 
wanted nothing. In the same manner, if the offering de- 
signed for God happened to be better than that designed for 
the idol, they made an exchange, but not otherwise.— 
_ George Sale. 
GOD’S FOE NO FRIEND TO MAN 


A foe to God was never a true friend to man.— Young. 


PRESUME NOT GOD TO SCAN 


Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 
The proper study of mankind is man. 
—Pope. 
FEAR GOD ALONE 


Henceforth the majesty of God revere; 
Fear Him and you have nothing else to fear. | 
—James Fordyce. 


THE CRUSHING OF MAN’S CONCEIT 


For what are they all in their high conceit 
When man in the bush with God may meet? 
—Emerson. 


VINDICATE GOD'S WAYS TO MAN 


Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, 
But vindicate God’s ways to man. 
—Pope. 


MAN POWERLESS AGAINST GOD 


_ Where can man boast that he has trod on him that was 
“the scourge of God” ?—Edward Everett. 


306 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


GOD’S MILL SLOW BUT SURE 


God’s mill grinds slow, but sure—George Herbert. 


SINNING AGAINST GOD’S GRACE 


When the king removes, the court and all the carriages 
follow after; and when they are gone, the hangings are tak- 
en down. Nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and 
rubbish. So, if God removes from a man or a nation, 
where’ He kept His court, His graces will not stay behind ; 
and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort; down 
go the hangings of all prosperity, and nothing is left behind 
but confusion and disorder.—Dr. Stoughton. 


ONLY THOSE WISE AND FREE WHO SERVE GOD 


With God there is no free man but His servant, though 


in the galleys; no slave but the sinner, though in a palace; — 


none noble but the virtuous, if never so basely descended ; 
none rich but he that possesseth God, even in rags; none 
wise but he that is a fool to himself and the world; none 
happy but he whom the world pities. Let me be free, noble, 
rich, wise, happy to God.—Bp. Hall. 


INGRATITUDE TO GOD 


The Dead Sea drinks in the river Jordan and is none the 
sweeter; and the ocean all other rivers, and is none the 
fresher; so we receive daily mercies from God, and still 
remain insensible of them, unthankful for them.—Bishop 
Reynolds. 


WITHOUT GOD, WITHOUT ALL 


The inscription on the front of Downing Hall, North 
Wales, is a very suggestive one. It runs in Welsh, “Heb 
Dduw, heb ddim; Duw a ddigon;” and translated signifies, 


“Without God, without all; with God, enough.”—Guide to 


North Wales. 


> ah 


NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 307 


GOD MERCIFUL TO HIS ENEMIES 


While Voltaire lived at Lausanne one of the bailies (the 
chief magistrates of the city) said to him, “Monsieur de 
Voltaire, they say that you have written against the good 
God; it is very wrong, but I hope He will pardon you... . 
But, Monsieur de Voltaire, take very good care not to write 
against their excellencies of Berne, our sovereign lords, for 
be assured that they will never forgive you.”—Smiles. 


MAN A MARRED MACHINE WITHOUT GOD 


Living without God! Do you know what that man re- 
sembles who does this? He is like a piece of wheel-work 
out of gear, or a faulty machine, which only mars what it 
ought to make, wounds the hand which it should help, and 
obliges the owner to break it up and throw it aside— 
Mullois. 

GOD CASTS DOWN THE PROUD 


When one asked a philosopher what the great God was 
doing, he replied, “His whole employment is to lift up the 
humble, and to cast down the proud.’—Selected. 


NOTHING CAN SATISFY WITHOUT GOD 


It was a sweet saying of one—‘‘As what I have, if of- 
fered to Thee, pleaseth Thee not, O Lord, without myself ; 
so the good things we have from Thee, though they may re- 
fresh us, yet they cannot satisfy us without Thyself.’”— 
Brooks. 


NOTHING CAN BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR GOD 


God may well be taken as a substitute for everything; but’ 
nothing can be taken as a substitute for God.—Dr. Davies. 


NO REST OUTSIDE OF GOD 


Lord, Thou madest us for Thyself, and we can find no 
rest till we find rest in Thee —St. Augustine. 


BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD 


REVERENCE FOR GOD’S NAME 


You have often heard it said that the British philosopher 
Boyle never mentioned the name of God without a percep- 
tible pause. That is an example worth our following. And 
the followers of Mohammed never tread on a chance piece 
of paper that lies upon the ground, lest the name of Allah 
be written on it. Even they with their false religion know 
better than to play familiar with Him before whom the 
archangels veil their faces——F, M. Goodchild. 


GRANT ON SWEARING AND SAYING GRACE 


(Memoirs.) JI am not aware of ever having used a pro- 
fane expletive in my life. . . . (Addressing Chaplain 
Crane.) Chaplain, if it is agreeable to your views, I should 
be glad to have you ask a blessing every time we sit down 
to eat. 


PENNSYLVANIA LAW ON BLASPHEMY 


If any person shall willfully, premeditatedly and despite- 
fully blaspheme, or speak loosely or profanely of Almighty 
God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of 
Truth, such a person, on conviction thereof, shall be sen- 
tenced to pay a fine, not exceeding $100, and undergo an 
imprisonment, not exceeding three months, or either, at the 
discretion of the court. (1860.) 


SWEARING IN A GRAVEYARD 


“T will give you ten shillings,” said a man to a profane 


swearer, “if you will go into the village graveyard at twelve 


o'clock to-night and swear the same oaths you have uttered, 


308 


BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD 309 


when you are alone with God.” “Agreed,” said the man; 
“an easy way to make ten shillings.” ‘Well, come to-mor- 
row and say you have done it, and you shall have the 
money.” Midnight came. It was a night of great darkness. 
As he entered the cemetery not a sound was heard; all was 
still as death. The gentleman’s words came to his mind. 
“Alone with God!” rang in his ears. He did not dare to 
utter an oath, but fled from the place, crying, ‘““God be mer- 
ciful to me a sinner !’’—Selected. 


FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING GOD 


PANTHEISM DEFINED 


The earliest and most prevalent idea seems to have been 
Pantheism, which means God in all things. More strictly 
defined, it means that God is the Soul of the Universe, and 
the universe is His form; that the smallest creature and the 
minutest particle exist by having within them a living prin- 
ciple which is a portion of the Universal Soul; that every 
object that we see was originally in the Divine Mind, and 
could not otherwise have come into existence, as no machine 
could be made without first being an idea in some human 
mind.—L. M. Child. 


PREVALENCE OF PANTHEISM 


No form of religious error is more dominant now than 
. .. Pantheism. This is the identification of God with 
His universe, and especially with man. The German philo- 
sophical spirit has spread extensively through England and 
this country, saying that God is only a sort of power per- 
vading the universe which awakens to consciousness in man. 
That is Pantheism, and that pervades our literature. 
Browning’s poems are full of it. Tennyson is tinctured 
with it in some places. It puzzles you to know exactly what 
he does mean. Carlyle shows a similar tendency.—Bishop 
Nicholson of the Reformed Episcopal Church, in The 
(Philadelphia) Press, July 10, 1899. 


THE GOD OF PANTHEISM 


The God of Pantheism is not, like the God of Deism, 
outside the world, but within it, its life and soul, present in 
everything that is or that lives; in the leaves of the trees 


\ 310 


FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING GOD 311 


and in every blade of grass; in the bee and the bird, endow- 
ing them with skill to build their cell or nest; in man, in- 
spiring him with lofty thoughts and noble purposes.—A. B. 
Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 79, 80. 


SCHOPEN HAUER’S OBJECTION TO PANTHEISM 


The chief objection that I have to Pantheism is that it 
says nothing. To call the world “God” is not to explain it; 
it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym 
for “world.” . . . However obscure, however loose or con- 
fused may be the idea which we connect with the word 
“God,” there are two predicates which are inseparable from 
it—the highest power and the highest wisdom. . . . It is 
only Jews, Christians and Mohammedans who give its 
proper and correct meaning to the word “God.’—A. Scho- 
penhauer, Religion and Other Essays, pp. 55, 57, 58. 


BRUNO’S IDEA OF IMMANENCE 


A Spirit exists in all things; and no body is so small but 
that it contains a part of the Divine Substance by which it 
is animated. 


FISKE’S PORTRAIT OF THE GREEK GOD 


They (the Greek Christians as represented by Clement of 
Alexandria, Origen, and Athanasius) regarded Deity as im- 
manent in the universe, and eternally operating through 
natural laws. In their view, God is not a localizable person- 
ality, remote from the world, and acting upon it only by 
means of occasional portent and prodigy; nor is the world a 
lifeless machine working after some pre-ordained method, 
and only feeling the presence of God in so far as He now 
and then sees fit to interfere. . . . On the contrary, God 
is the ever-present life of the world; it is through Him that 
all things exist from moment to moment, and the natural 
sequence of events is a perpetual revelation of the Divine 
wisdom and goodness. 


PROVERBS ABOUT GOD 


Against God’s wrath no castle is thunder-proof. 

All things proclaim the cariee of a God.—Napoleon. 

Better God than gold. 

Every little blade of grass declares the presence of God. 
—Latin. 

Everything has an end excepting God. Dutch, 

Father and mother are kind, but God is kinder.—Danish. 

God deals His wrath by weight but without weight His 
mercy. 

God delays but does not forget—Modern Greek. 

God does not pay weekly but He pays at the end.—Dutch. 

God extends from eternity to eternity—Aristotle. 

God has many names though He is only one being.— 
Aristotle. 

God is not hasty but He forgets nothing —German. 

God is patient because eternal—St. Augustine. 

God postpones, He does not overlook.—Turkish. 

Good is God and long is eternity. 

Hae God, hae a’.——Scotch. 

If God be with us everything that is impossible becomes 
possible. 

If God be with us who shall stand against us ?—Latin. 

To God’s counsel chamber there is no key.—Danish. 

Unless God be with us all labor is vain—Latin. 

Whom God will help none can hinder. 

What we have in us of the image of God, is the love of 
truth and justice—Demosthenes. 

Who hath God hath all, who hath Him not hath less than 
nothing. 


312 


INDEX 


Abbott, Lyman, Nature God’s dwelling, 16 

Adams, Nehemiah, 42, 162 

Adams, Presuming against God, 303 

Adams, S. F., God Sends What Is Best 
(Poem), 219 

Adams, Thomas, God’s mercy man’s only 
hope, 177 ‘ 

Addison, 12, 108 

African tribes belief in God, 101 

Agassiz prayed constantly, 131 

&@ Kempis, Thomas, God’s goodness over 
all, 199 

Alexander, Mrs. C. F., God’s Mysteries of 
Grace (Poem), 220 

Alexander, J. W., God’s goodness every- 
where, 85 

Alexander the Great’s Theism, 119 

Alford, Dean, God at the Helm (Poem), 220 

Alleine, Joseph, God’s government moves 
forward, 48 

Alleine, Richard, Enjoying the presence of 

~ God, 94 

Allen, William C., Proofs of God’s existence, 
29, 31 

All Nature Has a Voice to Tell (Poem), 23 

Ancient names of God, 102 

ANGER OF GOD, 230 

Archeology and the one God, 102 

Arnold, Matthew, Faith of, in God, 115, 295 

Arnot, Why men love local gods, 92 

Arnot, William, In the hollow of God’s 
hand, 224 

Arrowsmith, 28, 91, 216 

Arthur, Dr. W. A., God is light, 256 

Arvine, 33, 36, 40, 83, 271, 273, 289 

Astronomers’ belief in God, 130 

Atheists and atheism, 11, 16, 23, 25, 37, 38, 
109, 115, 120, 122, 124, 127, 310 

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, 56 

Augustine, St., 34, 93, 217, 228, 240, 269, 286, 
296, 297, 307 


Bacon, 19, 80, 123, 139, 286 

Bailey, 20, 46, 295 

Bailey, Philip James, Living for God, 294, 
295 

Balfour, A. J., God cannot be eliminated, 276 

Bancroft, History proclaims God reigns, 107 

Barbauld, God’s name written everywhere, 
27 

Barnes, God’s love greater than ours, 150 

Bate, John, 83, 250 

Bates, 165, 198 

Baxendale, 103, 127, 287 

Baxter, 61, 63, 65 

Beecher, 65, 138, 145, 153, 166, 167, 170, 173, 
174, 178, 183, 188, 189, 194, 199, 265, 267, 
269, 279, 290, 291, 293 


. Bellew, J. C. M., God’s gentleness revealed 


in nature, 26 

BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD, 275 

Benevolence of God, 17 

Bentley, The eternity of God, 126 

Berkeley, God’s providences hard to under- 
stand, 222 

Bertram, R. A., 40, 89, 171, 200, 292 

Beveridge, Bishop, God everything to his 
children, 288 

Bible, 14, 28, 40, 77, 84, 128, 157, 158 

Bismarck loyal to the King of Kings, 118 

ape Correct ideas concerning God, 

21 

BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD, 
308 

Blocker, Colonel, Fear God and keep powder 
dry, 296 

Bolingbroke’s free thought Theistic, 19,1365 

Bonaventura’s temptation, 300 

Bossuet, Bishop, Life nothing without God, 
272 

Bowes, 91, 106 

Bowring, Mercy Never Wanes (Poem), 183 

Boys, Grace not all given at once, 174 ' 

Bradlaugh would not deny God, 135 

Brainerd, Mary Gardiner, Walking with 
God, 295 ] 

Breck, Mrs. F. A., Acquaint Thyself with’ 
God (Poem), 285 = 

Broche, Man changes not God, 71 

Brooks, Phillips, 214, 218, 283, 287, 307 

Brougham, Lord, 74, 196 

Browne, Sir Thomas, Everything reveals 
God,14 ~ 

Browning, Mrs., 115, 140 

Browning, Robert, 19, 20, 155, 294 

Browning’s Gems Concerning Deity (Poem), 
114 

Brown, Thomas Edward, God Walks in the 
Garden (Poem), 20 

Bruce, A. B., The God of Pantheism, 311 

Bruno’s idea of the immanence of God, 311 

Bruyére, God’s existence cannot be dis- 
proved, 35 

Bryant, William Cullen, 20, 113 

Buck, 49, 279 

Budgell, Sources of the knowledge of God, 
97, 271 

Burke, Edmund, God gives all that is best 
for us, 198 - 

Burnet, Bishop, The eye of God, 254 

Burr, E. F., Greatest astronomers believed 
in God, 130 

Bushnell, Horace, 81, 224 


Caird, Dr., To have God is to have every- 
thing, 216 


313 


314 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Cameron, God a rock, 257 

Carlyle, Thomas, 17, 109, 140, 260 

Carruth, William Herbert, Is there a God?, 
30 

Carus, Paul, His belief in God, 130 

Caussin, N., 16, 57, 160 

Cawdray, 51, 161, 201, 221, 258, 262, 281, 
284 

Cecil, God our light and life, 287 

Cecil, Richard, Why God removes man’s 
props, 211 

Chalmers pities the atheist, 26, 139 

Chance, Creation not the result of, 38 

Channing, True happiness found in God, 283 

Channing, W. E., Inspiration of God’s 
presence, 94 

CHARACTER OF GOD, 144 

Charnock, 31, 68, 72, 83, 177, 218, 219, 281, 
284, 300, 302, 304 

Child, Lydia Maria, 94, 310 

Chinese originally monotheists, 100 

Christlieb, 97, 100 

Cicero, 34, 96, 98 

Clark, Marian N., God Knows Best (Poem), 
77 

Clarke, Samuel, God is a Spirit, 251 

Cleveland, Rose, Madness not to see God in 
nature, 21 

Coleridge, Atheism a Blind Owlet (Poem), 
115 

Conder, God an omnipotent King, VB 

Condescension of God, 195 

Cook, Eliza God’s Voice in Nature (Poem), 
20 

Cook, Joseph, God in science, history and 
mind, 35 

Corbett, Rev. F. S., Assurance in trusting 
God, 282 

Cowper, 14, 20, 213, 285 

Craik, D. M., God’s love the key to every- 
thing, 154 

Creation as evidence of God’s existence, 
14, 28, 29, 31 

CREATOR, GOD THE, 53 

Cruden, Description of God, 11 

Culcross, We know little of God’s greatness, 
60 

Cumming, God’s joy to do good, 199 

Curtis, Loneliness without God, 273 

Curtis, Ticnor, Belief in God common to 
mankind, 98 

Cuyler, Theodore L., Working on God’s 
lines, 212 ‘ 


Dare, Joseph, Trinity compared to water, 
etc., 51 

Davies, Dr., No substitute for God, 307 

DEFINITIONS OF GOD, 9 

DEPENDENCE ON GOD, 270 

Derham, 18 

Derzhaven, 32 

De Sales, Francis, 175, 280 

Descartes’ knowledge of the true God, 125 

Design shown in creation, 35 

Dexter, Reason accepts God as Creator, 53 

Dick, The knowledge of God innate, 98 

Dickson, Alexander, God supplies our needs, 
224 

Diderot, Belief of, in God, 134 

D’Israeli’s Lothair saved from atheism, 50 


Doddridge, 192, 295 

Dodge, Mary Mapes, God is overhead, 39 

Drummond, Henry, The soul’s feelers, 272 

Duncan, George A., Carlyle’s definition of 
Prayer, 110 

Duncan, H., God’s benevolence shown in 
nature, 18 

Dwight, Dr., 76, 78 

Dwight, John S., God is living, 39 

Dwight, Timothy, God’s omnipotence in 
creation, 73 


Edison’s belief in God, 128 

Edwards, Jonathan, Men sin unless God 
restrains, 263 

Egypt, Ancient, believed In one God, 104 

Egyptian philosopher’s belief in God, 104 

Elizabeth, C., God invisible like the wind, 252 

EMBLEMS OF GOD, 258 : 

Emerson, 13, 110, 305 

Empedocles, God a circle, 12 

Esquimaux belief in the Great Spirit, 101 

ETERNITY OF GOD, 40, 126 

Everest, 9, 50, 54 

Everett, Edward, Man powerless against 
God, 305 

Everything reveals God, 14 

Everywhere, God is, 13 

Evolution, God or, 54 

Ewing, God’s attributes blend together, 56 

EXISTENCE OF GOD, 28 


Faber, F. W., 244, 299 

FAITHFULNESS OF GOD, 239 

FALSE CONCEPTIONS OF GOD, 62, 310 

Faraday, a devout believer, 128 

Farragut, Admiral, Trust in God, 273 

FATHERHOOD OF GOD, 242 

Faucheur (See Le Faucheur). 

FEAR OF GOD, 297 

Fellowship with God, 280 

Fénelon, 94, 152, 155, 198, 211, 221, 224, 
253, 275, 291 

Field, H. M., At the Religious Parliament, 95. 

Field, James T., God on ocean and land, 94 

Firmament, God’s mantle, 22 

“First Cause,’’ God the, 53 

Fiske, 126, 311 

Flavel, John, 151, 221 

Flowers, The, reveal God, 22 

Forbearance of God, 160 

Fordyce, James, Fear God alone, 305 

Foreknowledge of God, 77 

¥oss, Bishop C. D., 141, 297 Z 

Foster, 37, 39, 44, 69, 75, 76, 91, 101, 102, 
105, 146, 169, 214, 225, 244, 252, 271, 293, 
299, 300 

Foster, Bishop R. S., God created the uni- 
verse, 53 

Franklin, Benjamin, 49, 118, 295 

Froude, J. A., God can overrule mistakes, 221 

Fuller, Andrew, God’s anger a Divine per- 
fection, 239 

Fuller, Richard, God’s faithfulness like the 
sea, 238 


Galen, Dr., Convinced, 10, 32 

Galileo’s faith in God, 127 

Garnett, Richard, Praying to Love, 156 
Gateker, God's love for his children, 249 


INDEX 


315 


Gifford, O. P., The best people have be- 
lieved in God, 142 

Gilfillan, Hebrew idea of God’s omnipresence, 
etc., 85, 149 

Gladden, Washington, Definition of God, 10 

Gladstone’s faith in God, 118 

GLORY AND RICHES OF GOD, 214 

God, a circle without a cireumference, 12 

God, Alone can satisfy, 45 

God, Ancient names of, 104 

GOD, ANGER OF, 230 

God, Archeology and, 102 

God, Astronomers’ belief in, 130 

GOD, ATTRIBUTES OF, 56 

GOD, BENEFITS OF TRUSTING, 275, 
278 

God, Benevolence of, 17 

God, Bible definitions of, 9 

God, Blaspheming the name of, 308 

God, Cannot be defined, 9 

GOD, CHARACTER OF, 144 

God, Christ’s description of, 10 

God, Creation proclaims a, 30 

GOD, DEFINITIONS OF, 9 

GOD, DEPENDENCE ON, 270 

God, Directs the universe, 47 

God, Easily known but not defined, 10 

GOD, ETERNITY OF, 40 

God, Everywhere revealed, 13 

GOD, EXISTENCE OF, 28 

GOD, FAITHFULNESS OF, 239 

GOD, FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING, 
310 

God, False conceptions of, 62 

GOD, FATHERHOOD OF, 242 

GOD, FEAR OF, 297 

God, Flowers reveal a, 22 

GOD, GLORY AND RICHES OF, 214 

GOD, GOODNESS OF, 189 

God, Government of, moves forward, 48 

GOD, GRACE OF, 164 

God, Greatness of, 17, 26 

GOD, GRIEF OF, 206 

GOD, GUIDANCE OF, 207, 210 

GOD, HIS HATRED OF SIN, 260 

GOD, HOLINESS OF GOD, 157 

GOD, HOW HE IS REVEALED TO US, 
291 

God, Ignorance concerning, 67 

GOD, INDWELLING OF, 93, 267 

GOD, INFINITE AND INCOMPRE- 
HENSIBLE, 60 

GOD, JUSTICE OF, 158 

GOD, KINGDOM OF, 253 

God, Knows Best (Poem), 77 

GOD LAWYERS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 121 

GOD, LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN 
GOD, 107 

GOD, LONGSUFFERING OF GOD, 200 

GOD, LOVE FOR GOD, 292 

GOD, LOVE OF GOD, 148 

God, Man’s nature requires a, 36 

GOD, MERCY OF GOD, 176, 182 

GOD, NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS 
OF, 254 

GOD, NATURE A REVELATION OF, 13 

GOD, NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING, 
299, 301 

God, No philosophy without, 31 

GOD, OMNIPOTENCE OF, 73 


GOD, OMNIPRESENCE OF, 84 

GOD, OMNISCIENCE OF, 77 

God, Perfection of, 50 

GOD, PERSONALITY OF, 50 

GOD, PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN, 123 

God, Plato’s idea of, 12 

GOD, POETS’ BELIEF IN, 112 

God, Power of, 59 

GOD, PROVERBS ABOUT, 312 

God, Prophecy proves existence of, 31 

GOD, PROVIDENCE OF, 18, 218 

God, Reason demands a, 37 

God, Reverence for the name of, 308 

GOD, SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN, 128 

GOD, SEEKING AFTER GOD, 289 

God, Sees everything, 80 

GOD, SERVING, 294 

GOD, SKEPTICS’ ADMISSIONS CON- 
CERNING GOD, 132 

God, Soul of, shown in his works, 21 

GOD, SOVEREIGNTY OF, 47 

GOD, STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN, 116 

God, Submission to, 49 

GOD, SUPREMACY OF, 44 

God, The greatest work, 9 

God, The universal soul, 10 

GOD, TRINITY OF, 51 

GOD, TRUTHFULNESS OF, 241 

GOD, UNCHANGEABLE AND IM- 
MUTABLE, 71 

GOD, UNIVERSITY OF BELIEF IN, 95 

God, Westminster definition of, 11 

GOD, WILL OF, 227 

God, Wisdom of, 24 

Goethe's God behind nature, 112 

Goodchild, F. M., 60, 308 

GOODNESS OF GOD, 189 

Gouldburn, 162, 167, 204, 233 

Government of God, 48 

GRACE OF GOD, 164, 167 

Grant, General, Opposed to swearing, 308 

Greatness of God, 16, 57 

Greenlander’s idea of God, 105 

Green, Prof., God a Sun, 255 

GRIEF OF GOD, 206 

GUIDANCE OF GOD, 207, 209 

Gurnall, 174, 180, 183, 185, 187, 243 

Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 16, 64, 74, 152, 167, 
175, 178, 191, 194, 197, 240, 241, 304 

Guyon, Madam, The Will of God (Poem), 
228 


Haig, General, Faith in God, 273 

Hall, Bishop, 216, 301, 306 

Hall, Dr. John, 50, 99 

Hamilton, 160, 211, 243, 246 

Hammond, God's foreknowledge explained, 
81 

Hare calls atheism a vacuum, etc., 129, 144 

Harmony, Nature is God’s, 15 

Harris, George, Science only denies an 
absentee God, 129 

Haydn, Given overwhelming joy by God, 287 

Hebrew idea of God’s omnipresence, 85 

Heine’s faith in God, 126 

Henry, Matthew, 222, 224 

Henson, P. 8., Only fools deny God, 130 

Herbert, George, God’s will slow but sure, 
306 

Herbert, Man’s wilfulness toward God, 302 


316 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Herschel on God and gravity, 129 

Hillis, N. D., Christ's description of God, 11 

Hill, Rowland, God’s love like the ocean, 181 

Hindoos and God’s supremacy, 44 

Hirsch, Rabbi, God speaks to all mankind, 
100 

Hodge, 9, 137, 157 

Hiodge, A. A., Names of God, 259 

HOLINESS OF GOD, 157 

Holland, J. G., The doctrine of special 
providences, 222, 286 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, One unquestioned 
text, 156 4 

Holt, Mrs. N. A., Need of Guidance (Poem), 
209 

Hood, E. P., Thirsting for God, 290 

Hooker, Richard, Law has its origin in God, 
237 

Hooper, Why God’s presence is not more 
manifest, 87 

Topkins, Bishop, God to us as sun to flowers, 
270 

Hopkins, Mark, God all in all, 48 

Horace’s Ode to the All-Supreme, 112 

Horne, Bishop, 276, 279 

Hovey, Friendship Like God, 217 

Howe, J.; We owe all to God, 296 

Hugo, Victor, God overthrew Napoleon, 49 

Hume a Deist, 135 

Huntington, A tribe forgetting God, 106 


Ignorance of God, 67 

India, Belief of, in the great God, 102 

Indian boys define God’s supremacy, 45 

Indwelling of God, 93, 267 

INFINITENESS AND INCOMPREHEN- 
SIBILITY OF GOD, 60 

Ingersoll not an atheist, 135 

Ingratitude to God, 299 

INVISIBILITY OF GOD, 251 


Jackson, Dependence on God’s grace, 164 

Jacobi, 13, 100, 273 

Jay, God the best companion, 280 

Jay, John, God governs the world wisely, 121 

Jerrold, Douglas, Man judges God by him- 
self, 144 

Johnson, Herrick, Atheism now extinct, 137 

Johnson, Samuel, Man tends toward God, 
99, 295 

Jones, William, of Nayland, God’s om- 
niscience, 78 

Joubert, God easily known but hard to 
define, 10 

Joy found in God, 92, 275 

Judges, famous, Belief in God, 122 

JUSTICE OF GOD, 158 


Kant, 54, 125 

Keach, God a Shield, 258 

Kempis, Thomas a, God disposes, 199, 213 

Ken, Thomas, Doxology, 285 

Kent, tells us about the laws, 121 

Kepler, God’s wisdom infinite, 78 

Kerr, Rev. Hugh T., A.M., D.D., The Will 
of God, 227 

KINGDOM OF GOD, 253 

Kingsley, 89, 108, 115, 144, 159, 198, 209, 223 

Kipling’s Recessional, 113 


Kirk, E. N., God’s love for sinners, 155 


- Knowledge all derived from God, 97, 125 


Knowledge of God, 98 

Koran, The supremacy of God, 44 

Kossuth, History the revelation of Provi- 
dence, 220 

Krummacher, 103, 104, 230, 270 


Laertius, Diogenes, Stoics’ belief in God, 106 
Landels, God an ever-present friend, 87 
Lanahan, John, God directs the universe, 47 


- Lavater, God alone can satisfy, 45 


Lavington, God the great ‘‘ First Cause,’’ 53 

Law, Bishop, God an omnipotent workman, 
74 

Law has its origin in God, 237 

Lawson, James Gilchrist, 23, 102, 142, 159, 
212, 223 

LAWYERS, FAMOUS, BELIEF IN GOD, 
121 

Le Faucheur, Michel, 175, 183 

Legge, James, Chinese originally mono- 
theists, 100 

Liddon, Canon, Footprints of the Creator, 27 

Light, God compared to, 255 

Lincoln, Abraham, Belief in God, 117 

LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD, 
107 

Locke, Creation proves God’s existence, 124 

Longfellow, No accidents with God, 220 

LONGSUFFERING OF GOD, 200 

Lorenz, Rev. E. §., 76, 91, 186, 272, 292 

Lorimer, 36, 61, 98, 221 

Lotze, Hermann, Proclaims his faith in God, 
127 

LOVE FOR GOD, 292 

LOVE OF GOD, 148, 245 

Lowell, James Russell, 39, 113 -155, 217, 295 

Luthardt, No people without wWod, 97 

Luther, Martin, 93, 286 

Lyte, H. E., Need of God’s presence, 93 


Macculloch, Dr., Reason demands a God, 37 

Macdonald a part of God’s allness, 92 

MacDonald, George, 241, 268, 279 

Macduff, 153, 195 

Maclaren, Alexander, 92, 94, 151, 176, 211, 
242 

Macleod, Norman, Guidance greater than 
supposed, 211 

Macmillan, Transformations wrought by 
grace, 172 

M’All, Greatness of God’s attributes, 58 

Mann, Horace, Education incomplete with- 
out God, 107 

Manton, 56, 60, 71, 81, 184, 281 

Martin, S., 56, 267 

Martineau, James, 131, 223 

Mason, God’s attributes, 59 

Massilon, God should be everything to us, 
294 

Maxwell, J. C., No philosophy without 
God, 31 

McCheyne, R. M., 284, 296 

McCosh, 62 

Melancthon’s definition of God, 12 

MERCY OF GOD, 85, 144, 176 

Meyer, F. B., 140, 149 

Mill, John Stuart, The real ruler of the 
universe, 126, 130 


has 


Westen 


INDEX 317 


Mitchell, Prof., Creation not the result of 
chance, 37 

Montgomery, God's beautiful works, 19 

Moody, D. L., Trusting God’s promises, 239 

Moore, T., God the life and light of the 
world, 21 

More, H., Our wills blended with God’s will, 
229 

Mountford, William, God has a purpose in 
everything, 210 

Mozoomdar, A pagan conception of God, 145 

Mueller, Max, The Heaven-Father of the 
nations, 101 

Mullois, Man 2 marred machine without 
God, 307 

Murphy, Nature caused by God, 27 

Myer’s Ancient History, Ancient Egypt 
believed in God, 102 


NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF 
GOD, 254 

Napoleon, 49, 120 

NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD, 13 

Nature God’s harmony, 15 

Nature God’s hieroglyphies, 35 

Nature God’s dwelling, 16 

Nature Inspires reverence for God, 23 

Nature Reveals God’s greatness, 16 

NEG? SCTING AND OPPOSING GOD, 
29° 301 

Nev: un, John H., Lead, Kindly Light 
(- sem), 209 

Newton, Angels cannot comprehend God, 65 

Newton, John, 223, 263, 265 

Newton, Sir Isaac, Philosophical to believe 
in God, 124 

Nicholson, Bishop, Prevalence of Pantheism, 
310 


Ocean, God compared to the, <°* 

OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD, 7é 

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD, 84 

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD, 77 

OPPOSING AND NEGLECTING GOD, 
299, 301 

Owen, Rev. G.S., Threatening God, 302 


Paine, Tom, Believed in God, 132 

Paley’s watch argument, 33 

Pantheism, 310 

Park, Prof. Edwards. A., God’s voice in 
nature, 18 

Parker, Theodore, Nature a sparklet from 
God, 17 

Paulin, George, Comfort of Omnipresence 
(Poem), 84 

Paxton, J. R., God is kind but just, 160 

Payson, Edward, God’s will is perfect, 49 

Pennsylvania law on Blasphemy, 308 

Perfection of God, 56, 157 

Perrine, God always with us, 286 

Persians worshipped the Supreme God, 103 

PERSONALITY OF GOD, 50 

Peters, Madison, Eternity beyond con- 
ception, 43 

PHILOSOPHERY’ BELIEF IN GOD, 123 

Philosophical to believe in God, 124 

Philosophy, None without God, 31 

Pierson, A. T., 14, 158 

Pilkington, God sees beneath the surface, 80 

: 


Plato’s idea of God, 12, 122, 145 

Plutarch, No town without a temple, 98 

Plutarch’s faith in God, 104, 108 

Poems, 17, 20, 21, 23, 33, 36, 112, 115, 229 
267, 285, 286 

POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 112 

Pollock, God incomprehensible, 12 

Pope, 19, 96, 135, 305 

Power, Fellowship with God, 280 

Pressensé, Atheism would be a hell, 138 

Preston, God knows everything, 79 

Prime, S. Irenzus, Rest found only in 
God, 275 

Promises of God, 239 

Prophecy proves God’s existence, 31 

PROVERBS ABOUT GOD, 312 

PROVIDENCE OF GOD, 18, 218 

Pulsford, J., God’s glory compared to the 
sun, 70 


Quarles, True love begets fear, etc., 217, 
296, 297 


Racine, 23, 298 

Radium, God compared to, 256 

Reason demands a God, 37, 53 

Reid, J. M., All things working for good, 222 

RESISTING AND NEGLECTING GOD, 
299 

Rest found in God, 94, 275, 280 

Rest, None outside of God, 307 ; 

REVELATION OF GOD TO US, 13 

Reynolds, Bishop, 184, 306 

RICHES AND GLORY OF GOD, 214 

Richter’s awe-inspiring apolog, 74 

Robertson, F. W., 93, 149, 160, 241, 278 

Robespierre sways France against atheism, 
143 

Rock, God compared to a, 257 

Rogers, N., God’s attributes like Himself, 57 

Rousseau’s belief in God, 134 

Rowe, Elizabeth, Glory of God manifest in 
his mercy, 179 

Ruskin, John, 22, 64, 107, 139, 212, 253 

Rutherford, 75, 80, 93, 210, 286 

Ryan, Archbishop, At the Parliament of 
Religions, 95 

Ryle, Our conceptions of God are paltry, 68 


Saadi, Fear those who fear not God, 302 

Sale, George, Slighting God, 305 

Sales, De (See De Sales). . 

Sales, God’s presence like the air, 87 

Salter, 145, 146, 168, 215, 261, 284 

Satisfy, God alone can, 45, 282, 307 

Saurin, James, Meditate on God’s love, 154 

Savonarola, God infinite in mercy, 144 

Sawyer, S. J., Deists now extinct as dodos, 56 

Schiller, God’s movements not aimless, 47 

Schopenhaur’s objection to Pantheism, 311 

Science and God, 129 

SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 128 

Scott, How God guided Israel, 212 

Scott, Sir Walter, Atheism a hideous creed, 
109 © 

Seasons, show God’s wisdom, 22 

Secker, We are created for God’s service, 294 

Sedgwick, Only Christians can call God 
Father, 242 

SEEKING AFTER GOD, 289 


318 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 


Seneca's idea of perfect liberty, 127 

Sergeant, Judge, Competent witnesses, 122 

SERVING GOD, 294 

Shakespeare, 48, 49, 108, 219 

Shairp, J. C., Becoming part of God’s king- 
dom, 253 Y 

Sharswood, Judge, First truths, 122 

Shedd, Prof., The necessity of God’s justice, 
161 

Shield, God a, 257 

Sidney, Algernon, God helps self-helpers, 295 

Silence of God, 203 

Silesius, Angelus, God’s Indwelling a Heaven 
(Poem), 267 

Simpson, God’s watch-care, 247 

SIN, GOD'S HATRED OF, 260 

Sin, No, hidden from God, 82 

SKEPTICS’ ADMISSIONS CONCERN- 
ING GOD, 132 

Smiles, God merciful to his enemies, 307 

Smith, Goldwin, Science and monotheism, 
129 

Socrates’ faith in God, 122 

South, 65, 82, 201, 233, 235 

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, 47 

Spencer, 47, 75, 161, 184, 205, 266 

Spenser, God’s Goodness (Poem), 112 

Spurgeon, 13, 17, 62, 180, 181, 215, 246, 
275, 302 

Stanley, Dean, The Westminster definition 
of God, il 

STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD, 116 

Sterne, Laurence, 188 

Stillingfleet, All people acknowledged God, 
96 

Stockdale, F. B., God the greatest sufferer, 
206 

Stoics’ belief in God, 106 

Story, Judge, Belief in God, 121 

Stoughton, Dr., Sinning against God's 
grace, 306 

Submission to God, 49 

Sufficiency of God, 217 

Sumner, Bishop, All classes neglecting God, 
300 

Sunday School Times, 79, 207, 257 

Sun, God compared to the, 70, 214, 254 

SUPREMACY OF GOD, 44 

SWEARING, OR BLASPHEMING GOD'S 
NAME, 308 


Swetchine, Mad., God commands most - 


fidelity, 100 
Swift, The universe not an accident, 27 
Swinburne, Love knows our way, 155 
Swing, Atheism is soul paralyses, 138 
Swinnock, 57, 165, 205, 239, 282 
SYMBOLS, NAMES AND TITLES OF 
GOD, 254 
Symonds, John Addington, The voice of 
God, 290 
Sympathy of God, 196 


Talmage, 67, 182, 196 
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 34, 85, 188, 197, 
217, 286 


Taylor, Jane, Who Taught the Bird? (Poem), 
32 


Taylor, W. R., Nature in harmony with 
God, 15 

Tennyson, 22, 285 

Tertullian, The Trinity of God, 51 

Thackeray’s reverence for God, 110 

Theodoret, Why God permits trials, 210 

yet n Dr., Love for God drives out evil, 

we Samuel, God the universal soul, 


Tillotson, 82, 169, 284 

Todd, Dr. J., 15, 266 

Toplady, We need daily grace, 164 

Townsend, God’s signature on all hearts, 96 

Townsend, L. T., African tribes believers in 
God, 101 

Trapp, God unlike Sertorius or Pertinax, 241 

Trench, Nature God’s hieroglyphics, 35 

TRINITY OF GOD, 51 

Trumbull, H. C., No need to prove God’s 
existence, 28 

TRUTHFULNESS OF GOD, 240 

Tupper, M. F., God is of necessity Love, 155 

Turner, God means good, 199 

Tyrius, Maximus, All nations believed in 
God, 96 


UNCHANGEABLENESS, OR IMMUTA- 
BILITY OF GOD, 71 


UNIVERSITY OF BELIEF IN GOD, 95, 


Vianney, 164, 175, 185 

Vincent, J. H., A skeptic’s objections an- 
swered, 90 

Voltaire’s belief in God, 134 


Wallace’s favorite quotation, 13 

Walton, Izaak, Work as well as pray, 295 

Ward, Mary A., God unchangeable, 72 

Warren, Bishop, The Trinity in light, 52 

Washington, George, 116 

Watson, 44, 91, 165, 174, 184, 185, 187, 263 

Watts, 48, 240 

Webster, Daniel, Man’s dominating im- 
pulse, 120 

Wesley, Charles, Depth of Mercy (Poem), 
182 

Wesley, John, 51, 292 

Westminster Catechism, Definition of God,11 

Whitecross, Living in sight of God, 83 

Whittier, J. G., 39, 114, 219, 220 

Who Taught the Bird (Poem), 32 

Wicked, The, cannot escape God, 49 

Williams, W., A Prayer for Guidance 
(Poem), 209 

WILL OF GOD, 227 

Wisdom of God, 22, 78, 83 


Young, Dr. J., Why we should fear God, 298 
Young, God’s foe no friend to man, etc., 19, 
237, 305 
Young’s Two Little Night Thoughts (Poem), 
“B47 


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